


Do It Off The Ice

by Wolfields



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Magic, Drama, F/F, F/M, Lots of plot, Sports, figure skating AU, quarantine made me do it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 52,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfields/pseuds/Wolfields
Summary: They could be playing football, field hockey, horse riding or sheep herding! Anything would be better than figure skating in the middle of Scotland.
Relationships: Fleur Delacour/Hermione Granger, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter
Comments: 80
Kudos: 280





	1. There's a Size Difference

**Author's Note:**

> This is a quarantine fever dream. Welcome, hope you enjoy the show.  
> Figure skating world rules will be used and then bent for my own amusement - and to make it easy.
> 
> Characters belong to J.K.Rowling.

“Mr. Weasley, what have I said about doing jumps that you can’t do off the ice? 

“Ice and floor are very different things professor and…” 

“Answer my question” 

“If you can’t perform a jump on a solid floor the ice will be even worse.” The boy patted his left side to take the ice off and ignore the glare from McGonagall, the coach being even taller, and threatening in skates. 

“Good. Now, start the program again. And. No. Quads.” She turned around and glided over to the sideline where Hermione controlled the audio and video system of the rink. Ron placed himself in the middle of the ice and started his routine again. 

This was a common Friday evening at Godric Gryffindor Memorial Arena. Well, as common as it can get for a second-tier group of figure skaters in the middle of Scotland. They could be playing football, field hockey, horse riding, sheep herding! Anything better than figure skating. But if it fits I sits right? 

Ron did his routine, being keenly observed by Hermione and McGonagall. The older skater has been teaching and coaching since forever and no one dared ask her age. She is what the city would call, a 5 stars Trip Advisor attraction. Minerva was once a world competitor – again don’t ask about age – turned into coach, and after a tour around Europe she stopped at Hogsmeade. It certainly wasn’t to avoid figure skating drama, but maybe she will tell that tale on the end of year gala after a proper amount of gin and tonic. 

As Ron finished his short program routine, Hermione stopped the camera filming his performance and watched her boss glide again close to her pupil to talk about it. ‘There is no way in hell he is getting on the top 5 of nationals with this’ she thought. Ron dreams too much and trains even less, his idea that he would be able to win the UK nationals to get into worlds this year is as possible as pigs flying. She didn’t even need to watch the tape to know it isn’t a matter of small posture adjustments and jump height. 

“Maybe I could create a training schedule that works with food reward system” she mumbled to herself. 

“If you’re thinking about a food system for Ron, forget it, I tried it last year when he needed to gain muscle” Harry said coming into the booth and wearing his training attire and carrying his duffel bag. 

“Is it already yours and Ginny timeslot?” The girl asked looking at the rink clock. 7:30. Too early for him to be there. 

“I just wanted to see if I could talk to you and McGonagall before that” He looked at the ice, unfocused “There are things I need to discuss.” 

His friend knew not to pry when Harry’s not ready to say anything, so she just gave his hand a tight squish and turned back to pay attention to the training happening on the ice. Ron started repeating different segments of his program for a few times, having positioning and jumps corrected before the coach sent him to do jumps off ice for the last ten minutes of his session. 

“I can’t believe that woman” Ron murmured as he left the ice, only for Hermione and Harry to listen. Both could only eye roll as their friend took his skates off and went straight to the gym mat. 

Minerva stayed alone on the ice for a moment and then came to the front of the booth with a small glint of a smile. 

“Mr. Potter. How are you today?” 

“I’m good professor.” 

“Good, you can start some warm-up laps before Ginevra gets here. I’m excited for your program this year.” She points to a smiling Hermione by his side “And I believe miss Granger already has a full training schedule based on your...” 

“About that” Harry interrupted her, a little louder than necessary when the arena is basically empty, making the two women startle a bit. “About that” he started again in a lower and keeping a composure to his voice. “I’m too short” 

“I beg your pardon?” 

“I’m too short to be Ginny’s partner” 

“I understand your height Potter, but you need to develop that idea a little more” 

“I’m” Harry fumbled with his hands trying to focus and re-learn how to speak like a twenty-year old. “I’m too short for us to compete on a serious level, and we both want to stop doing this for fun” 

Hermione interjected “But you never wanted to compete on a serious level.” 

The assistant was worried. Harry never had shown any interest in competing on a professional level, and it only got worse after his parents died a few years back. It was hard to even mention their names in the context of figure skating, especially when they were the last people in Great Britain to win anything. 

So maybe Harry lost his mind, maybe Ron made him lose his mind. She knew they shouldn’t be living together at the complex. How to fix this, how do I fix... 

“You want to compete in the single category. Is my understanding correct?” As Hermione heard Minerva, she was sure everyone just lost it. Bonkers, hit their heads too hard, too many times on the ice. 

Harry nodded - and was relieved he didn’t need to keep trying to explain. If he kept going, he was sure to induce himself to a panic attack, which was not the plan. Ginny supports him, tell McGonagall of his plan, wait for acceptance and train. Simple checklist. 

The coach looked at Hermione and asked “How would you proceed with his training schedule in this case miss Granger? We need to be ready for him to peak at Nationals in December and if he gets it on a first try, Worlds a month later” 

“Well” Hermione shook her head, ‘focus on assistant mode’ she thought before continuing “It’s July, we need to confirm what kind of jumps Harry can do and organize a short and a free program around them. And even, plan a side program to increase his jump potential. I see a five day a week training minimum, with three or four days on the ice and daily gym plus more ballet. It’s....viable” 

Harry tried opening a smile towards Hermione, she didn’t return with that much excitement. She was more worried he would lose himself again with this, but she could talk to him after, whatever this is. Minerva stayed in silence, thinking. Made a gesture for Harry to get up and come into the ice. 

The boy took off his skate guards and glided from the entrance to the front of the booth where the coach was standing. “You will do some jumps and footwork for me now, and we will figure out how to move on with this. I’m assuming you’ve been training by yourself before you came with this proposition, which means someone gave you access during close time” She gave Hermione a side look when her assistant pretended to be fixing something in the camera in front of her. “Nevertheless, if you are sure Mr. Potter, we can start” 

“More than ever” And both glided to the middle of the ice talking about some step sequences. 

Hermione was still a little shocked to be honest. A lot has happened in a very short amount of time, she knows because Ron has not left the gym yet, so it couldn’t have been more than 15 minutes. She needs to plan a new schedule for Harry, avoid merging it with Ron, somewhat get her two best friends ready for nationals and on top of it all plan for some kind of emotional backlash. 

She knew she was signing up for this when she decided to work with figure skating, but maybe she should start reconsidering. Women football sounded like it was going well, maybe she could become an assistant for the Gunners, who knows. 

The rest of the evening followed the expected uneventful. Ron managed to get away from the arena without talking to anyone, probably licking his hurt ego after having to go back to the training mat. Harry managed some triple jumps, with one triple axel in there ‘He has been training by himself but without me’, Hermione felt hurt at that. That her best friend would hide something. 

Harry finished drying his skates and put them in the duffel bag. “You coming ‘Mione?” 

The girl was still typing away in her notebook “I still want to get some notes done regarding the complete change of plans for you. And we both know this will take longer if I walk away right now”. He looked at her with sad eyes. “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be sorry. Just work your ass off. And tell me what’s going on when you feel you can trust me.” 

“It’s not that I can’t trust you Hermione. I just” He took a very long breath, holding steady. “I need time to grasp some things, but I promise you I’m working on them.” He then turned around to leave, walking towards the entrance. Arms hugged him from behind with a known force. 

“I’m happy to see that you’re making decisions for you and not for everyone else” Hermione said, hugging a little tighter. He turned around and they hugged properly until a cough could be heard. “Could I borrow my assistant for a moment Potter?” 

“Yes professor.” Both of them left the embrace and turned to McGonagall, now without skates – and still taller than them. “I’ll see you tomorrow for the kids camp.” And with that he left, waving to both of them. 

The coach and assistant walked towards the booth where Hermione grabbed her laptop and camera, putting them inside her backpack. “What did you want to talk to me Minerva?” 

“Better if we go to my office. Prefer to be sitting for this” Both walked towards the back where the gym, lockers and offices were located. It was a small arena this one. They didn’t have the need for a huge ice patch because there weren’t many skaters in the area, and more ice means more money to keep it frozen. They managed to work year-round mostly because they were part of a bigger complex, with other three buildings, the swimming pool and its diving platform, indoor courts – known for fencing and badminton - and outside courts – they needed somewhere to play football and field hockey. During these summer months the rink was filled only by kid’s camps, adult lessons and the three amateur athletes that trained regularly – who also taught some of the basic classes. 

That’s why the only office they had was McGonagall’s, where most meetings and conversations happened, liking it or not. It was a small space, but cozy. A shelf with trophies and old pictures of young Minerva in skates, coaching and skating. Some books about skating and English history and an electric kettle on the side, always ready to be turned on. 

Minerva didn’t even ask Hermione if she wanted tea, because of course she would want some. They just spent three hours inside a giant refrigerator. The coach made two herbal teas, and after giving one to her assistant she sat down on her chair holding her cup, as if nothing could be better than that. 

“Ronald need to be prohibited from the ice until he can do a quad on the floor without falling” Hermione said without blinking. The coach just laughed. “If I prohibit him from entering the ice, we lose an athlete and a source of revenue” 

McGonagall gave an emphasis on the ‘and’ and kept going. “I understand he is a very stubborn person. A bull hitting the corner of the room that doesn’t turn around. But if I give him any ultimatum, he will give up on everything. And as a coach I wouldn’t want that” 

Hermione deflated a little on that. She felt tired of baby-sitting Ron, something that might have been her own doing as friend and eventually trainer. She loves him, she really does, but there is a limit to her efforts after years. 

“In other news, I have a job proposal for you Granger” This took her by surprise. “A job?” the assistant answered. 

“Yes. What am I about to tell you needs to be kept secret until it is official. And when I say official, it means press type.” 

“I don’t seem to follow Professor” 

“Two Grand Prix skaters will come train here, starting in two weeks. We are just getting their visas sorted out. One is aiming to get back to the circuit after a year off, the other is recovering from injury.” McGonagall opens her first drawer and takes out two binders and gives them to Hermione “They both want to get back on their game somewhere they won’t be harassed by media constantly and with new perspectives. This is a great chance to get us on the map again.” 

Hermione looked at the names through the binders covers and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. 

“What do they have to do with the job offer you mentioned?” 

“I will be their main coach, but they are very accomplished skaters. They just need tweaks, not huge learning. I know you’ve been doing the camera analysis of everyone and you’re extremely capable in understanding positioning mistakes right away. My proposition is for you to take a coach role, and I will obviously give you a raise.” 

The assistant was confused, but at the same time proud. Minerva believed she could deal with the skaters that are coming in. Top skaters from other countries, and she would be coaching them mostly. This is not only a great career opportunity, but also a gigantic vouch of confidence. All her anxiety related to Ron and Harry dissipated at that moment, taking place excitement and happiness. 

“I’d be honored to take this role Minerva. I will not disappoint you” 

“On the meantime I will have Neville start taking over your skating classes during the week, and you can study and prepare for the three new schedules you need to make. Feel free to use my office during the week.” The coach got up and Hermione followed her lead. McGonagall opened the door for her and wished her goodbye and a good weekend. 

Hermione was basically skipping leaving the arena and facing the warm air of the summer when she saw Harry and Ron facing each other. Both with anger in their eyes. 

“Yeah, because boy who lived need to always be bigger than everyone else” Ron shouted raising his hands to the air and flailing them. “You can’t let other people have the spotlight” 

“What spotlight Ron? The one you shoved up your ass?” Harry leaned closer to the ginger boy’s face. 

“Oh, fuck you. First you fuck up my sister and now me. Really nice Potter” 

“Don’t bring Ginny into this. She wanted out of the ice dancing!” 

“She would say anything to please you moron, she has a child crush on you” 

“Shut up both of you!” 

Both boys, already holding each other's shirts, turned to see Hermione. “What in the bloody seven hells are you doing? Release each other before McGonagall leaves the building and suspends both of you before the season begins” 

They released each other but Ron scoffed again “Of course she would defend you. You both always had each other backs but never mine” 

“Ron, you know that’s not the case. Please let’s talk this out” The girl walked getting close to the ginger, but he stepped back. 

“No” Ron shook his head “I can’t be second for both of you constantly” and turned away from the Arena going into the path towards the building complex they lived. 

Harry and Hermione stayed there in silence for a while until he opened his mouth to say something and was interrupted by his friend. 

“No, I’m not your couch after training hours you don’t need to explain anything to me and yes we both need a drink.” 


	2. We're Too Young To Be This Tired

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hello!  
> I see you got yourself cozy inside this madness. Here, have a blanket and some cocoa.  
> Arena's and figure skaters are cold.

Things for Harry have been rough and happy at the same time. He’s been doing what he set himself do to at the beginning of the summer. He doesn’t mind spending more time outside of the ice than Ron, which is a nice break for the two. The ginger boy hasn’t spoken to him for almost two weeks besides ‘you’re in the way’ or ‘did you finish with the weight already?’, making life in the apartment even worse. 

But he has managed to reach a stable landing for most triple jumps on top of the mat and maybe in a month time he will get the hang of quads. Hermione didn’t believe it was possible, it would be too fast, but he was sure he heard the assistant tell McGonagall that the fact he spent most of his life on the ice with his parents, helped develop natural muscle response. 

Figure skating wise he was happy, he could focus, there was nothing wrong. Even the kids in the classes he was coaching were listening to him and not being kamikaze’s trying to hockey stop before the guard. 

Emotionally wise it was shit. 

Because of Ron being a dickhead, he was avoiding the apartment as much as possible. His first try to avoid his house was to spend time with Hermione. But she was constantly writing, researching and watching grand prix tapes, ‘It’s a really important thing Harry, I can’t tell you anything more than that’ Making him feel a little more rejected than expected. 

Neville tried cheering him up by inviting him to some of the aquatic polo lessons and spend some time at his grandma’s house during the weekend, but it helped only in those two days. After it the loneliness crashed down again. His options were dwindling down by the second week of operation ‘avoid the house at all costs’ as he couldn’t call Sirius every day. He would get suspicious and run back to Hogsmeade, breaking his contract. Harry came home from tea with Lupin on Thursday, happy after seeing the new puppies that were born at the clinic, when he saw that Ron had left the kitchen a mess. Harry didn’t understand why those small things were getting to him so easily. It was dirty plates, not a precious thing being destroyed. 

His chest felt constricted, filled with something that he couldn’t manage to get out. It wasn’t a panic attack, just a shadow falling on top of him. He couldn’t stay there, grabbing his skates and going to the rink, some laps and footwork would do him good. 

As he stepped on the arena, McGonagall was nowhere to be found, the adults from the evening lesson were leaving and only Hermione and Ginny were there. “Hey!” Harry shouted from the sideline and his friends looked at him and skated towards his side “You leaded the class tonight? No McGonagall? 

“She had pressing matter to attend to in Edinburgh, she should be coming back in the last train today” Hermione said while doing a 360 twirl and stopping. Ginny laughed at the impromptu movement and added “Never thought I’d see ‘Mione happy to be _doing_ spins. Do you believe she even showed them how to do three turns flawlessly?” 

“You know we need to learn all those things to be able to coach Ginny” Hermione rolled her eyes with a smirk. 

“You’re just never happy doing them, just telling people how to do it. What about you Harry, came to see how your former partner is doing as you don’t call anymore?” 

The boy laughed and leaned on the guards “I’ve messaged you yesterday, take care not to start sounding like your brother.” And as soon he finished that phrase, he knew he couldn’t turn back on the topic. 

“Is he still being an idiot? Do I need to go break his legs like old fashion skating drama?” The youngest Weasley said as she crossed her arms. 

“He’s still refusing to talk to me, but it’s fine, I promise” 

“It’s not fine Harry” Hermione chipped in “He’s jealous and needs to deal with his problems. Not throw a temper tantrum instead of talking to you” 

“I know and I can’t go there and smack him until he understands, so for now I am avoiding him and putting myself in first place” He sounded angry, although he wasn’t sure why it came out like that. It just did. So, he just held the strap of his duffle bag and pointed to the benches. “I’m going to go put my skates on if you guys don’t mind sharing the ice” 

“No, it’s okay. There’s enough space for the three of us” Hermione said and Harry left the two of them. 

“Well, that was awkward” Ginny said skating backwards back to the center of the ice and Hermione followed skating face to face. 

“I get it, he must be very frustrated with Ron and I’ve been busy” Ginny just hummed and sensing that none of them wanted to keep talking about the situation the assistant changed the subject “Have you thought about teaming up with Neville?” 

“It’s what makes sense. Just not sure he wants to go at it as seriously as me. I’ve technically warmed-up, can I do some crosscuts before we go through with whatever you have for me today?” 

Hermione nodded and paid attention to Ginny doing her crosscuts circles at her side. Harry seemed to have taken the left side of the arena, so they positioned themselves in the right side. 

“What is your serious plan exactly? Are you also thinking about a top position on Nationals?” 

“I’m a little more realistic than thinking I will get a top five right away, because it doesn’t depend solely on me” Ginny spoke loudly as she did her forward circles. She stopped to start going backwards “Two to three years is my expectation to win the Nationals. I would be twenty-four, get on the ten best positions during worlds and be able to start a grand prix schedule.” 

Hermione laughed a little louder than she should “It’s funny to hear a realistic view of the sport from a Weasley. After the crosscuts work some step sequences in” 

“I’m an ice dancer, I can afford to wait a bit. Singles competitions now have Russian kids doing quads in their sleep. The stakes are very different.” 

The assistant just stopped to observe her athlete and correct some positioning. It’s hard to coach an ice dancer without her partner, but the last two weeks have been messy for her. In between planning a development program for top-level skaters, teaching classes and looking for a new partner for Ginny, the last one was almost forgotten. McGonagall looked for some skaters in the country that would be interested, but they needed to be taller than her, which narrowed their choices a lot. Neville was this eureka when she saw him teaching the Wednesday adult class. Taller, calmer, not afraid of looking ridiculous and had ballroom dancing experience. Sometimes the answers are right in front of you. 

McGonagall will talk to him tomorrow to make the partnership official, as today she was in Edinburgh picking up the new team additions and giving some interview with them. The news will break tomorrow, putting them once again on the map. Putting Hermione’s name on the map. 

She knew she wasn’t going to get any proper sleep that night. The excitement had taken over her, day dreaming on how the first training and meet up will happen. She even picked an outfit for tomorrow and bought new skate guards – the girl still used basic plastic ones because she didn't bother to look nice before. One could even wonder if she really did practice saying hi and giving hand-shakes in front of the mirror, but she would commit murder if that was proven true. 

After a quick nap and a cup of coffee, Hermione was ready to go. Her bag filled with printed images, notes, notebook, camera and her favourite pack of colored pens. The summer sun was starting to show up signaling it is time to go to the rink. The beginning of August heat can be felt in the air as she gets out of the apartment, deciding to tie her sweater and walk to the rink in her tank top instead of having the risk of showing up with ‘pizzas’ under her armpits. 

“Morning” a voice came from her side as she waited for the elevator “Morning Ron. How you doing?” 

“Fine” He grumbled. ‘Maybe he’s still asleep and forgot he was supposed to be mad at me’, the assistant pondered. They both got onto the elevator when it came in and they made their way to the arena in silence, until Ron broke it. 

“Since when do you take the morning shift of training? Is McGonagall ready to retire?” 

“I’m going to start being at the rink every day Ronald. Got promoted. And no, McGonagall will not retire any time soon” 

“Are you my coach now then?” He avoided looking her in the eye, so Hermione couldn’t point exactly what kind of emotion he was trying to hide. It felt like frustration mixed with happiness, if that is even possible. 

“No. I am actually going to be coaching two new athletes. They start today” 

They were about to go into the building when Ron put his hand in the glass door handle and blocked her. “New athletes? Which new athletes?” And before Hermione could answer, a known - and always on time - cough grabbed their attention. 

“Morning Mr. Weasley. Ms. Granger.” Their boss and coach, was standing behind them with no one other than Viktor Krum by her side. Second place in worlds and grand prix final two years ago. Once upon a time said to be the future quad king before Nathan Chen showed up. Coming from a country that had almost no Figure Skating tradition, making him Ron’s number one idol. 

The girl recovered from the scare really quickly and moved towards them offering a hand for him to shake. “Good morning Minerva. And it’s a pleasure the finally meet you Mr. Krum. I’m Hermione Granger” 

She didn’t realize she was still wearing a white tank top and not her meticulous sweater and winter coat attire. She had no clue Viktor was delighted to see someone so close to his age being the coach McGonagall talked about. She had no idea that Krum would take her hand and give a kiss at the top of it. 

“It’s nice to meet you Hermione. Minerva has told me I would be in good hands, so please, take care of my career” Smiling and letting go of her hand delicately. 

“Of course.” He kissed my hand, what do I do with that, he kissed my hand. Get your shit together Hermione. 

“Let’s go inside so we can talk you through the plans we have for your season and make some adjustments where is necessary, Mr. Krum” Minerva interjected. The top skater smiled and walked inside with McGonagall, passing by a stunned Ron and leaving a nervous Hermione. 

“Krum. Viktor Krum is here. He is training here” 

“Oh my god. I’m wearing only my tank top, of course this would happen to me” 

“You think he would give me some tips?” 

Ronald, now confirmed, forgot he was mad at Hermione. His two brain cells could only repeat: Viktor, then Krum. Krum, then Viktor. He wasn’t a bad person per say. But being the youngest boy of a large family affected his sense of others. The instinct of always protecting himself and not getting enough attention turned him into a one-track mind person, which Harry and Hermione could forgive. To a certain extent. Sadly, he had exceeded every patience left in their bodies lately. Not that he also noticed that, because he was protecting himself from being left behind. In his personal opinion. 

Harry had no time to deal with this, ‘and I also have no time to deal with what I want to say to this boy’, thought the-girl-with-the-tank-top. She just walked in, putting her cashmere sweater – for these fancy moments – and headed straight to the main office. 

It took around one hour to present all her plans. They discussed, talked about the modifications they had to do and expectations coming from both sides. Krum explained to them that he practiced very little in the year he took off from skating. He was actually with his grandfather who got ill, and wanted to spend those moments without anyone bothering him. “Media can be very annoying when they are looking for drama. When I got injured coming out of juniors, there was this talk that I would never be able to enter the senior competition. I let it get to my head, affected my recovery. I almost gave them what they wanted and gave up on it” 

After their talk they went to the gym to do Krum’s physical evaluation. Ron was leaving the room when they were coming in and almost hit a wall on his way out to meet McGonagall for his on-ice training. 

One thing needs to be said about Viktor. He seems like someone you would not want to encounter on an alley, even during the day. His resting face seems mean, his wide shoulders make him look like the bouncer that you want to avoid. However, he moves and talks softly. It’s the dog size conundrum, bigger the dog, the softer they are. They need to show they are friendly by all means necessary, that they are not their looks. 

The exam and tests go by smoothly. Hermione even manages to crack a joke about skaters and their addiction to social media when Krum took his phone off to make an ‘insta’ story. He thanked her for everything, and she walked with him out of the arena. 

“Tomorrow we start with your schedule. I will be with you for the first couple gym and ice sessions to give you some guidance, after that we will determine the slots during the week you want for personal training and the ones with me and McGonagall. Two weeks from now we should start choreography for short and free program. If you have anyone in mind you would like to hire, please let us know so we can arrange their time” The, now coach, felt more at ease after the early morning fiasco, even managing to look him in the eye while relaying the information. 

“Can’t wait Ms. Granger. I’m excited to get back on track with like-minded people. It’s difficult to find really good matches in this sport” Krum waved her goodbye and left to enjoy his last rest day for a while. 

‘Delacour should show up at any minute now’ Hermione looked at her cellphone to check the time. But as the day is getting close to midday, staying outside of the Arena with a sweater is not ideal and tank top moments will be avoided like the plague. The girl went back into the rink and watched Ron jumping and doing sequences with McGonagall as she walked back to the gym side. What she didn’t notice was a backpack strap coming from bellow the bleachers, and as a perfectionist, her feet entered the lace and perfectly she went down. 

“Oh god, are you okay?” 

Granger knew someone just stepped to her side, but her head was buzzing too much for her to open her eyes properly ‘Great, a concussion and not even on the ice’. The person’s hands helped her turn so that her head would be facing up, and she covered her eyes from the lights with her arms. 

“Where can I find an ice pack?” The person asked her. Hermione just pointed in the direction of the office and murmured “Fridge”. She heard steps leaving her side but skates shaving the ice were heard. 

“Do you feel like throwing up Granger?” McGonagall asked and the girl just shook ‘no’ with her head and regretted it immensely. “Good, at least for now it doesn’t seem to be a concussion. Ms. Delacour, could you help her sit?” 

The skater sat by the fallen girl and talked to her slowly “I’m going to put my hands behind your back and head to help you get up without moving too much.” 

Hermione put her hands behind her body when she was in a proper vertical position. This took out her shield from the lights, making her open her eyes only to be on eye level with no one other than Fleur Delacour. There is a limit of humiliation on a day and she reached it. 

The skater laughed at the horror and panic that took over the girl’s face. Why couldn’t she have a little fun with her fame from time to time, am I right? Fleur took the ice pack and offered to her. “They. They are very blue” The girl said while picking the ice. “My eyes? Yes, they are” Red cheeks were added to the horror and panic from before, making the girl get up faster than she should. 

Hermione leaned on the bleachers to hold steady and give herself a good space between Delacour and her. The French was still laughing at her expense “You need to take some more of the basic lessons if you’re falling off the ice like that.” 

“Oh, I’m not a student. I’m your coach.” Hermione gave her hand to shake after stabilizing in her two feet. “Hermione Granger.” 

Something happened. Delacour smiling face turned into a sour one, and if she could make a bet, she would say she wanted to be angry but was holding her poise. “You’re Hermione Granger? Is she the one who’s supposed to get me on top shape for the biggest competitions in figure skating?” The woman turned to McGonagall asking, keeping a controlled monotone voice. 

She had a very different presence than Krum. He seemed like a seaside breeze that is soft and constant, dancing round you, Delacour was the summer rain that falls strongly, making everyone be aware of its presence. The thought of the dog conundrum came back again, but if someone ever called her a small dog, I’m pretty sure they are not breathing anymore. 

“Yes Ms. Delacour. We will show you her plans for your season as soon as I finish Ronald’s training for the day.” The French just nodded and sat down at the bench ignoring Hermione altogether. Awkward couldn’t even start grasping the situation, as the brown-haired girl finally lowered her hand. 

‘I need to fix this’ she thought and sat beside Fleur on the benches, whom in return just gave her a glance and went back looking towards the other side of the rink. “I’m sorry I tripped on your skate’s bag. Let me know if they got any damage, I will cover them” 

“I doubt there was any damage.” Silence. 

“How old are you?” Fleur finally looked at her again. 

“Twenty-two” 

“How many athletes you coach compete on a high level?” 

Hermione knew where she was going with this. “That doesn’t mean I’m not capab...” 

“Yes, it does.” Blue eyes stared into hers. Her voice was low, not wanting for McGonagall to listen to this conversation “You may think you’re this big hot shot because you’re smart, and because your boss believes in you but this is not a child’s game. And if I have even the slight impression that you will make me retire earlier than expected, I'll drag you down with me” 

Hermione convinced herself to keep eye contact, even though she wanted to run away from there to punch something or cry. Maybe both. ‘You’re the smartest person in this whole sport Granger, get your shit together.’

“You will see that the plan I created fits your strengths and weaknesses perfectly. You will come out of this season as the best in the world. You just need to trust me” 

Fleur Isabelle Delacour laughed. A tired, broken and sarcastic laugh.

“Granger, you have no idea how many times I heard those exact words.”


	3. Anger Is A Complicated Emotion

Hogsmeade was a medium town of sorts. Half of its population was made of students and people that worked to keep their university and the surrounding boarding schools functioning. The other half was a mix of born-and-raised with new transplants that decided to run away to a smaller town to raise their kids with an affordable mortgage.

Harry fell in the new transplant category when his parents moved to coach and raise him in peace. There must have been journalists at the time covering the direction of their careers, the same way they showed up to talk about their death. What  the skater  didn’t expect was to find  journalists once again just by picking up his phone without looking who was calling.

“Hi  Mr Potter, this is Mark  Piller from  The Guardian , would you have a moment to answer a few questions?” The voice from the other side sounded friendly, and Harry was waiting for Ron to  go to his morning training in order to leave his room.

“Hi Mr.  Piller . It depends on what kind of questions.”

“They are mostly related to your career and your relationship with  Godric Gryffindor’s Arena. I’m going to be pitching an in-depth story about the skating history of it and wanted to  confirm some information and understand  new developments ”

“Oh, well...” His parents were not mentioned in the conversation. That was a first “Shoot away”

“First of all, I see that you recently made the change to single skates.  Is that true ?”

“Where did you get that information Mark?”

“It’s in your Arena’s website”

“Oh” Harry massaged his eyebrows, as if trying to take care of a headache that was to come. Pressing his phone between his shoulder and ear he opened his laptop and started typing the website mentioned. “ Yes. I’ve been thinking about the change for a while. I guess I can say that I’ve been in my parents Ice Dancing shadow for a long time and I wanted to be able to skate by myself if you know what I mean”

“I get it. It’s not the same thing, but I come from a family of doctors, so people expected me to follow the same path. Ended up a sports journalist” He gave a laugh on the other side of the phone that made the boy feel a little lighter.

“I have the correct technique and no injuries, which allows me to last longer in the sport for now.” A trained voice of giving interviews came out of Harry. Give them information  about A, to avoid them asking about B.

“That’s a very European approach to it.”

“ Brexit is happening but we’re still Europe” Both of them gave a small chuckle. Finally clicking on the ‘Team’ tab on the Arena website , he saw two new pictures before his.

“Did the addition of two finalists to the Gryffindor’s team affect your choice in any way?”

He had no clue how long it took to answer the question, but Mark waited without saying a word. This was supposed to be a normal season, finally no shadows on top of him waiting for failure or triumph. No eyes lurking. He grabbed the package of his panic pills and popped one in.

“Not at all. My decision was made before any partnership was proposed.”

“ Do you believe this is a change of direction for  the team?”

“ Minerva McGonagall  is the manager of the figure skating program . She would be the best person  to answer this question” The tone of his voice indicated that this conversation was  over. Mark  thanked him for his time  and  ended the call.

By the end of the day, Harry had got the official announcement of Fleur and Krum from McGonagall, answered some questions from the afternoon junior skaters and got dragged to the Three Broomsticks with Ginny, Neville and a more stressed than average Hermione.

She was trying to avoid using  Fleur’s name, for professional reasons, but the irritation was clearly there. ‘How do I deal with someone that asks about how I got to every decision I’ve made?’ How do I work like this? Do I need to explain that the person fell onto their buttocks because the jump angle was three degrees more to the left?’

Harry ordered another fire whiskey and looked down at the big ice cube in his glass, circling his wrist to try and make it go around a full 360. “But Hermione, don’t you think you would also be a little worried if your whole life is being decided by someone you  know nothing about ?” Neville pondered with her while taking another sip of his beer.

“I guess” The girl, now only wearing the dreaded morning tank top, waved her hands up and asked for another gin and tonic “But it’s how she, I mean, the person did it. One thing is to properly ask questions, the other is to bluntly say I’m too young to be capable”

Ginny and Harry locked eyes over the bar counter and rolled them like golden medalists in synchronized ‘Hermione is being stubborn again.’ The  Weasley girl moved around to sit by Harry, leaving Neville to his conversation ‘is she being patronizing or really just an athlete diva?’ with the frustrated coach.  Longbottom deserves to be canonized.

“You’ve been weird the whole day.” Ginny said with a serious tone but a laugh to sugar coat it.

“A journalist called me this morning”

“Oh duck”

“That doesn’t even start describing the feeling”

“What did they ask? Are they looking for more gossip?”

“No. This one was actually nice. Confirmed that I just changed to singles and if the new additions to the team had any impact in my decisions.”

“So why are you so, like, this ? ” Ginny pointed to Harry’s face.

“I’m just angry” Harry finished his drink in one gulp and asked for water.

“Why?”

That was the question right. Why was he angry? Maybe because no one cared to tell him that this change was coming. But who could also know it would affect him that much? That he wanted to just be left alone when the Arena needs to thrive. That’s selfish of him, to think that it could survive only of his parent’s names. He had always backed the decisions for the best of everyone, so why couldn’t he feel happy about it? Why he couldn’t just answer the questions he is used to and be done with it?

“I don’t know. Could you just forget I said that?” He put his hand on top of hers, it was an honest request in the end.

“Only for you Potter” Ginny squished his hand and  gave him a small, but understanding  smile . They had a good friendship, born out of a crush and a weird almost relationship, but they got each other. Both of them were loyal to a default, and couldn’t be stopped if they decided to do something, the only problem is that whenever they clashed ,  it was worse than Hermione and Ron going at it. Ginny could understand why Harry did things, but she couldn’t point out why, and vice-versa. They were the same, but not complements of each other. Which was frustrating when one of them was looking for answers that the other couldn’t give.

“I’m going to my friend Luna’s place after this. Just board games, listen to music and maybe some weed”  the last option was whispered . “Want to tag along?”

“Sadly, summer camps are over and we start intense weekend trainings tomorrow. Need to sleep these drinks off for bright and early session with Ms. Grumpy pants there.” He got up from the stool “But, beginning of term party this year. I’ll go, it’s a promise.”

“Yes! Finally, Harry Potter will grace us with his presence at my party. It only took four years”

“It’s easier when I’m not a student anymore” He winked to her and turned to call Hermione, asking if she wanted to walk home together. The wa y back was filled with more complaints and thinking out loud from the coach. Harry liked the break of not having to answer any questions and just felt the summer breeze.

“That’s it!” Hermione whispered to herself as if she reached a Eureka moment. She even had both of her hands together, a plan was hatching in her mind.

“That’s it what?” The boy dared to ask.

“I’ll be one step in front of her. I’ll outsmart her.”

Harry almost believed that Fleur  Delacour was the difficult person Hermione kept saying she was. The certainty in her voice  on how her exercise programs were constantly under scrutiny painted the picture of a diva that wanted to train less than expected. Only problem is that he kept seeing a very different  skater than the one his friend kept talking about.

The first two weeks of August were one of the busiest that the Arena has seen since his parents were coaching. They had to create new class times as the University students kept registering and eventually tell them that there were no more spots. Fleur and Krum offered to give workshops to raise funds, those also got sold off quickly. Both of them were not far from McGonagall and Hermione in being the most involved people in the Arena. Their  instagram accounts featured the city and students that asked for  pictures and autographs – they both also had a picture of Hermione with tags about the ‘future of figure skating.’

Besides being nice people – Harry wondered if it was in their contract – the ice couldn’t lie. Krum was the definition of Eastern European skating tradition, a jump machine. He would listen to his coach without saying a word and do what she asked of him, but not exactly. Harry knew he was hearing Hermione talking, but he wasn’t sure Krum was listening sometimes. 

“You need to go for the jump. If you doubt yourself too much you will miss the entrance and you’re done for” He explained to Ron and Harry one of the afternoons everyone was on the ice working individually. “You doubt yourself too much Potter, you have the height to do a quad already. Which is the opposite of you Weasley. You go for it without thinking, end up with an over-spin resulting in a fall when it was supposed to be easy. Control is key.”

Ron has been latching onto every interaction he has with Krum, which hasn’t been turning into better performance. Ginny mentioned that her brother started day-dreaming that by only staying around his idol he will be able to perform well ‘McGonagall is going to beat his ass in November when he’s not ready, and that my friend, will be fun to watch.’

The person who was holding onto every word, but also listening constantly and showing already considerable improvement, was Fleur.

“Could you explain to me why I can’t train the triple Axel today?” She asked while fidgeting with her silver gloves.

“Because I want your ankle to get used to the ice again before putting it under too much pressure.” Hermione got really good at explaining her reasoning after the first week of questions, maybe she started enjoying it, but that’s an issue she doesn’t want to address. “And before you ask, the fact that you’re being able to do it on the mat is good, but it’s irresponsible of me to let you try  it now and end up injured.”

A known smirk showed up on Fleur’s lips “When do you think I will be able to try it on the ice?”

“Let’s see how your ankle feels in a week after starting double jumps plus the strength exercises.”

“Right coach.” The French woman gave her a nod and went to circle the rink in order to start jumping.

She did some Toe Loops, Flips and Lutz. ‘Her form is amazing. She makes it look so easy’ thought the brown-haired girl, but she only shouted a “Good” without much emotion.

Fleur started her diagonal to do another jump, but she was targeting very close to where Hermione was. “She wouldn’t” whispered the coach seeing the skater getting close. They locked eyes. ‘Oh, it’s on bitch’.

Hermione did not move at all and Fleur completed a double Axel in front of her, landing while keeping eye contact. The boys clapped from the other side of the rink.

“Were you trying to kill your coach?”

“No. Just to  impress. ”

“Post it on Instagram.” 

“I only look for approval from my coaches and judges. And as you can see” She motioned to the Arena with her arms “There are no judges here.”

‘This girl gets to doubt me for two weeks, and now talks about impressing. Breathe Granger.’ Hermione stared at her, stretched her posture and used her best professional voice “Those were exceptional jumps Ms. Delacour. Although very close to the sides, you could have hit it in competition. Would you like to try some jumps with your arm up? You just need to stop if your ankle complains.” 

The skater deflated from her pristine posture and broke their eye contact. “Will do ma’am” and went to the center of the ice stretching her torso and muttering something. No questions from the athlete for the first time, ‘Victory indeed is sweet.’

The boys left around the end of the afternoon, and they now had the whole rink for themselves. Fleur went through footwork exercises and, politely, talked about choosing one specific jump to raise the difficult with the arm up. She stopped with the follow up questions, only asking how Hermione wanted her to do certain movements.

“With the toe loop you’re giving yourself more spin strength when you swing your arm up, that’s why you’re losing your center when you land. This is what your arm should be doing” The coach showed her the correct positioning with a single jump.

“You can jump.”

“Of course I know how to jump.”

“It wasn’t a jab. I promise” Fleur raised her hands in a protection motion as she saw Hermione’s angry eyebrow frowning. “It just got me by surprise. I’ve actually never had a coach that showed me the movement before”

“The perks of being young.” They stared at each other. Again. For what could have been the thousand time since this coaching ‘thing’ happened. Hermione never disclosed to McGonagall what Fleur told her that first day, but the older coach knew they weren’t in friendly terms. ‘You may have been close with everyone you coached before, not feeling the emotional burden as much. But now, it’s just a job. Don’t let it get to you.’

“I was a pair skater with Ron when we were teenagers, but he wanted to trade to singles and me and Harry never worked well as ice dancing partners.” She said  dismissively .

“I would have liked to see you skate.”

Hermione just looked at her confused. How does she answer this friendly comment coming from someone who wasn’t friendly?

“I just think it would have been interesting to see you doing a program, that’s all. Though I will ask for you to repeat the jump because I didn’t pay the correct attention.”

With a huff Hermione repeated the jump and Fleur tried to mimic it. Friendliness forgotten and back to their usual professional state of acquaintances. They focused on the toe loop with one arm up until the coach looked at the clock and called it a day. Both of them left the rink and dried their skates in silence. As they got up from the bleachers, they faced different directions.

“The exit is that way  Ms. Granger” Fleur pointed to the doors.

“I know, but Filch is out today with a flu and I need to clean the ice before closing.”

“You’re driving the Zamboni?” Fleur went from tired to a child on Christmas morning so quickly that they could count as different people if you blinked and missed it.

“Yeah?”

“Can I please sit on it with you? I always wanted to drive the Zamboni!”

“It’s against the rules”

“Not if I just sit there and don’t drive.  Pleeeeeease ”

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a human in possession of skating experience, must be in want of driving the Zamboni. Only a psycho would say that they never thought about the possibility of using one. A gigantic machine that  smooths ice? Sign me up right bellow  Delacour’s name. The girl was puking rainbows as the machine did the whole round around the rink.

‘When I think I got this woman, this happens. Not a dull day in this job at least’ Thought Hermione as they sat there. Fleur asked some questions ‘Do you needed a license to drive it? How heavy it is? Could you just do it in a random pattern and would fix the ice the same?’ Which provided for decent, normal conversation. All they needed was to talk about the weather as they left the building, because it was pouring.

“Do you want to just ride with me? We are in the same building in the end.” Fleur had got a small car when she moved there, not wanting to walk all the way after training. Which resulted in at least a couple of days of complaints related to ‘what the right side of the street was.’

Hermione didn’t want to get on the car with her. It wasn’t out of anger, more of a feeling of not wanting to be close to Delacour. The first days of training with her were frustrating, with a lingering anger permeating everything. Licking her honour wounds and trying to ‘fake till you make it’. Each question hammered on the coach’s head that she wasn’t supposed to be there. She didn’t belong to a skating or sports family like Ron and Harry, her parents were dentists in Edinburgh for  christ’s sake. 

It would have been easy to just keep feeding the anger feeling inside if she hadn’t seen Fleur making the same questions to some of the junior skaters one day. ‘Why do you think this is a good jump progression? Have you asked McGonagall? Don’t you think it might be too harsh on your feet since your skates are new?’ Every time, Fleur looked her in the eye to make a remark or question her, started feeling less like being looked down upon and more like a personality trait. She wouldn’t accept things right away without a proper explanation.

So, Hermione just started being annoyed. For every question directed at her, she added another minute in the treadmill at the end of the day. She couldn’t deal with the fact that Delacour had treated her so badly, never apologized, and just acted “normal” around her. To be honest, Granger wanted for Fleur to have been a horrible person all the time, so she wouldn’t feel this need to want a proper apology.

“It will be quick, I promise. I can’t afford to have one of my coaches sick” Fleur talked, as if reading the other’s mind. Hermione remembered that she had a thought once, comparing the girl to the weather right now. And by the looks of it, both were unyielding.

She nodded yes and Fleur asked for her to wait there as she grabbed the car. One minute later she stopped as close as possible to the entrance and they were both half-soaked inside the car. Better than full soaked. Delacour offered her a towel she had in order to dry herself as she could, and they were off, slowly driving towards home.

They were inside the elevator ten minutes later. Hermione could feel the warm bath already, so she didn’t realize that her companion said something as she was leaving on her floor.

“Sorry, I was spacing out. Would you mind repeating that?”

The silver haired girl, still looking threatening and regal while being soaked, was smirking devilishly.

“I said, you are the best coach out there”

As Hermione’s face turned to a surprised one and the door was closing, she finished her sentence.

“Of your age.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That french little shit, am I right?


	4. There's Always a But

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey peeps! Just would like to thank everyone that has read, left kudos/comments/subscribed.  
> I'm happy this is entertaining for more people than just me.
> 
> This is mostly Hermione and Fleur dealing with their stuff because it was too late when I noticed I wrote too much.  
> Luna shows up in the next.
> 
> Also, no beta's. I revise as my attention allows.

“We actually had a back and forth conversation this morning” Said Harry from behind the fridge door and Hermione fake gasped as she sat on the kitchen counter. ‘Ginny’s start of the term party’ was mostly outside this year, as the rain gave the town a break after a whole week of pouring. The place was once a farm house, now occupied by girls from the soccer, rugby and skating team. It started as a joke when Ginny mentioned to her gym buddies at the University that the farm house on her way from home was for sale. The soccer team said they would move if they could fit a small field in there, rugby overheard and thought that was a good idea, one thing led to another, they ended up convincing the owner to rent for them in exchange for taking care of the grounds. 

The trio always wondered how the girls didn’t manage to end up with a cow and chickens, but they did have their field and a very well-organized house for college standards. It helped being at the outskirts of town, limiting the damaging chances of outside forces. 

“I know right?” Said Harry opening a bottle of beer and throwing Hermione a can of tonic water. “He asked me if I was coming to Ginny’s tonight and if I could bring him some beers, as he was going to work until late” The boy took a sip of his drink and sat on the opposite counter of his friend. 

“And did you do it?” 

“Why would I not do it?” 

“Because he was a dick and needs to apologize?” She opened the cabinet by her head and took out the bottle of gin she had hidden there. Knowing the house had its perks. 

“He will apologize. When he feels confident enough to take his head out of his ass. You know him.” Harry looked at his friend pouring more alcohol in her glass and toping it off with more tonic water. “There’s too much history between us for me to just let him go like that. He’s not a toxic person, just a prat from time to time.” 

“You impress me Harry Potter.” She raised the glass to him. 

He looked at Hermione, who was refusing to make direct eye contact by pretending she was focused on the ‘chicken timer’ by her side. 

“And why is that?” 

“Because you allow people to just, be.” She twisted the chicken timer and set for a random number “You know he is trying to reach out and you go with it.” 

“Why does my Granger sense tell me you’re not talking about Ron right now.” She finally turned her head to face him. Clearly, there was a very complicated decision process going on inside her mind. Pondering if she should say anything at all. 

“It’s silly. Not worth the time. I’ll get over it.” Harry eye-rolled so hard he could have become blind by mistake. 

“Come on. You’re bothered by it and I can’t let my best friend go around like this.” 

She gave him a sincere smile. They haven’t had these moments of just being friends in a while, giving her a sense that it would be okay to talk about what it’s in her mind. That and the alcohol. 

“It’s Fleur. She’s being. Friendly.” 

Harry’s face was holding to stay serious but he couldn’t do it for more than one second and started laughing at the ‘This is very important, Potter’ face his friend was doing. Hermione couldn’t hold it long also and just laughed along. 

“I sometimes wonder if she’s being nice to just stab me in the back with her skates.” 

“That, would be some Harding shit.” He finally controlled his giggle “I am really sorry I laughed. It’s just that it feels like when we were teenagers you know. Like a problem that feels solvable you know. I miss those.” 

“A toast to our sixteen-year old selves whose only worries were to get into uni and not get caught when you and Ron skipped class.” Hermione said as they raised their drinks at each other. A ‘before your parents died and everything change’ went without being said. 

“Tell me, what is Fleur doing exactly that is friendly?” 

“She’s” Hermione raised her hands to the sky, being reminded of her anger at the existence of Delacour “being nice. Since the day she pranked me at the elevator she comes to say hello when we’re at the ice for the same slot. Tags me on her social media, hashtag ‘future of figure skating coaching.’ I’ve got hundred new followers commenting on older pictures now. People love Crookshanks apparently, but who wouldn’t, he’s delightful. You know the slot where you guys leave around five and we stay until six? Last week I yawned and she asked if I wanted to grab coffee at the corner shop before going home. I just don’t get it.” 

The lack of breath after spilling out everything that has angered her in the last couple of weeks just leaves her exhausted and feeling slightly annoyed again. Why can’t she just move on from this? 

“Ok.” Harry was trying to mentally grasp what is really going on “Starting off, the social media thing is good for skaters. I don’t think it’s a personal thing per say. It’s part of it for sure. But her being active on it and showing that she has a relationship with you who” he raised his hand to count on his fingers “is a young, up and coming, pretty, and her jumping coach that she just changed France for, probably helps her with different audiences.” 

“Fair.” 

She occupied herself with her gin so Harry kept going “Regarding the rest, what if she’s just trying to compensate for the shit she put you through in the beginning?” 

“That’s a hundred percent what she’s doing.” 

“I don’t get it then. You’re angry that she’s trying?” 

“I guess. I...” She stopped for a moment and went to the door of the kitchen to confirm no one was going to walk in and hear information about top skaters. “I can’t move on from my initial anger. If she just apologized things would be easier.” 

“But, ‘Mione. Why do you want her to apologize?” 

“Because she was a jerk!” 

“No, I mean. I expressed myself wrong. My question is really, why do you care? I know it’s a matter of respect, but you seem to have it now. And without being a jerk like her. She’s not your friend, she’s your job. So, why do you care so much that she shows regret?” 

Hermione didn’t answer right away as she ruminated what Harry had said. Why did she have this need of being acknowledge by Fleur? Why couldn’t she move on for her own sake? 

“I honestly don’t know.” She laid on the kitchen door, defeated by herself. 

“OK, I have two ideas for you. One is crazy and very the usual trio, the other is the adult in me trying to be responsible.” 

“Just say it already Potter.” 

“You can walk straight up to her and go ‘Hey, Delacour’” Harry got down of the counter and walked to Hermione “I don’t care how many medals you have, or how we need to separate our junior skaters from your training schedule. I want you to apologize to the greatest figure skating mind you will ever meet. Because I own your ass” Harry did a not very accurate impersonation of what would be a drunk Hermione, flailing her arms and standing tall. 

“Potter, I would never!” 

“It would work! She is already so hung up on everything you say, she would just say ‘yes ma’am’ and then do a triple axel as she leaves.” Hermione is just laughing and trying to look horrified at the same time. 

“The other option, the adult one, is to give yourself some space from her. Which is nice because most of this week Viktor and her are around McGonagall figuring out choreography.” 

‘Which explains why she has been in the gym annoying him, Ron, Ginny and Neville constantly. Hiding from the niceness’ Harry thought, because if he had added it, he might have lost a tooth. 

“You are miserably right.” 

The chicken timer decided to ring right at the moment Ginny came into the kitchen. Startling them, her and the people behind her. 

“Are you all trying to kill me before I get my proper senior debut?” The ginger shouted at Harry and Hermione that just started laughing again. They might have to start with the water. 

“Ah, it’s nice to see both of you acting like humans again. I thought the ice had frozen you for good.” Ginny walked around the kitchen with her other two friends grabbing some mugs and leaving drinks in the fridge. She stopped at the entrance with half of her body already out of sight “By the way, Krum is here, he brought Fleur. Deal with it. Bye!” 

Hermione got red as a tomato and Harry fell to the floor laughing. 

They were lucky figure skating wasn’t that big of a sport among the college students. The skating team did ask for some pictures and autographs, besides that, Delacour and Krum just looked like rich kids that came around to party. Sunset was still two hours away and the day was humid and hot, obviously people would be wearing shorts, skirts and dresses. 

“Ginny, why don’t you have a butt like that?” Hermione heard one of the soccer girls point Fleur in the back, who was wearing a burgundy ‘well sized’ short. 

“Because I don’t get paid to look hot Georgia.” 

Krum and Delacour were walking around together and talking more between themselves, as Harry and Hermione tried to stay as hidden as possible. Afraid they would become babysitters when they wanted to just be drunk in peace. “He is kinda stylish for an eastern european I have to say. I would never be able to pull off that flower shirt.” Harry and Hermione found a strategic place by one of the backyard trees to observe the professional skaters in a new habitat. Harry found a cooler with the rugby girls to bring the beers and gin outside. 

“You and Ron with the weird eastern european comments. People have different tastes everywhere.” Fleur was in a conversation with a boy who’s definitely not a senior yet, but trying very hard to impress. Viktor entered a beer pong round not far from her. 

“What do you think that boy is trying to say to Delacour?” Harry asked. 

“Yeah, like.” She started saying with a lower mockery voice “I’m on my second year but I’m really mature for my age. I’m already writing my thesis, but just the abstract. Those boomers wouldn’t let me write it before time cause they wanna keep my money for longer. Those capitalists you know.” Fleur at the same moment made an expression that the boy just said something cringy. 

“Oh, no. I think I will need to blow our cover.” Harry mentioned putting his beer down. 

“It’s okay. I’ll do it. If the boy is an asshole he will ask if you’re her boyfriend and it will get uglier. I can just straight punch him in the face.” Hermione started walking in the skater’s direction when she saw the boy trying to hold the grey hair, which Fleur slapped him away. She walked faster and put her arm behind her back ignoring the boy. 

“Hey Fleur, I was looking for you. Me and Harry got our cooler at that tree with the drinks.” 

“We were having a conversation here.” The boy tried to interject but the French just smiled at Hermione and shoved her left hand on the boy’s face, pushing him to the side. 

“You are a blessing to the eyes.” She whispered to Hermione and turned her back to Krum’s direction. “Hey Vika! I’ll be over there!” Krum gave a double thumbs up when he saw it was Hermione and Harry also. 

“Don’t get that cocky.” Hermione said taking her arms from Fleur’s back. “We only blow our drinking cover in extreme situations.” 

“I can work with what I have.” She winked. The annoyed feeling came back again in Granger’s gut. 

“Potter, so nice to see you!” Fleur gave him cheek kisses and laid on the grass. “This place isn’t as ugly when it’s not raining constantly.” 

Harry laughed. Hermione scoffed. They were in for an interesting evening. 

Krum joined them after his game, starting a conversation about the Premier League with Harry. Apparently, Fleur had opinions on football when they mentioned the women's competition, claiming she has a Lyon jersey signed by someone called Amandine it seems. 

It wasn’t hard to let yourself be taken by easy conversation and the nice weather. Ron showed up closer to sundown complaining about the shift at the gym he worked at. It seems Pilates can be more stressful than you think. 

Hermione stopped for a moment to just take in the moment. Who would have thought that she would be here, one month from the most important competitions in figure skating, talking and training with top skaters and her best friends. She could let go that Ron has been a horrible friend the last weeks for the sake of the emotion, but she also couldn’t deny he was trying very hard to listen and be supportive of Harry as the conversation moved along to the season about to start. 

“You think we’ll finally see a women quad?” Krum asked Fleur and Hermione. 

“Oh, I doubt it.” Fleur poured the last of the wine in her cup “We only have now girls training the same way as the boys, and it’s under the Russian circuit. We won’t see it in seniors for two years, I think. The triple axel club is going to increase at least.” She winked at Hermione. 

“If you train properly Delacour. But also, for the quads, we need to re-evaluate how we train for figure skating altogether. I’ve been reading studies about women hormonal cycles and how it affects training. If you have young girls being prohibited of developing during their teen years because of fear of growth, we are not only ignoring the differences between the biology but also not learning how to pair and unify the trainings. Once we stop being afraid of talking about periods and buff woman, we can start moving forward faster.” 

“That’s why she’s the future of figure skating gents.” Fleur teased and the boys all agreed. 

“Hermione is able to let you know exactly where you made a mistake. Even though half of it I can’t correct for the life of me. If I have somewhat of a career, is because of her.” Ron added to it. There was a silent agreement between them, which surprised the slightly drunk Hermione. 

“I can’t wait for her to see us doing our choreographies and butcher us saying we’re not worth McGonagall’s genius.” Krum teased while opening the cooler and grunting that there was nothing more in there. “Gentlemen and Ladies, we seem to have a problem.” He turned the cooler upside down making an exaggerated sad face. 

“We have more beers inside the house, me and Ron can go grab that.” Harry proclaimed as all the other drunks clapped to their hero. 

“Hold on a minute lad. Isabelle?” Viktor said to Fleur. 

“Isabelle? Who are you? My mother?” 

“She is a very nice lady I have to say.” 

“Please, stop. What do you need?” Fleur got up from her spot. 

“Can I please have your car keys? I know you have wine in there still.” 

“I just got those for home Vika!” They were talking like siblings annoyed at each other. It was very entertaining to see, a sports journalist would be amused with this. 

“Scotland is your home for now Isabelle, so just give me the keys to access the alcohol.” Fleur scowled like a kid throwing a tantrum. Harry, Hermione and Ron just shared glances laughing in the background. Viktor just put his hand on Fleur's front pocket and took the keys out as she refused to do it herself. 

“Bring snacks also Vika.” She pouted and he just sent her a kiss, following a very amused Harry and Ron. 

Fleur sat by Hermione on the grass. 

Oh, no. Fleur sat by Hermione on the grass. 

‘Oh bollocks. I’m supposed to have something to talk with her? Will she let it just be in silence? Should I do what Harry told me? No, that’s just so unprofessional. But this is not a professional setting. Hermione, she’s your athlete either way, always be professional. Ugh!’ 

The panic that flooded the coach mind could very well be seen on how big her eyes got. Fleur just laughed. 

“We can just be in silence. I won’t be insulted.” 

Hermione slowly nodded and avoided looking at her. ‘I should have had that water bottle a long time ago.’ 

“However, before we stay in awkward silence. I need to say, I’m sorry.” 

“But?” 

“Why there’s have to be a ‘but’?” 

“There’s always a ‘but’ with you.” 

“I like to think that the elevator was a moment of genius.” 

They were both looking at the distance. None dared focus their vision or look at each other. With the sunset, the party was concentrated close to the grass pitch and back porch, where strands of lights were positioned a little above people’s heads. Some students were betting each other to hit them with their heads and you could hear Ginny shouting from the kitchen window to ‘stop it unless you wanna die of electric shock and I will not drive anyone to the hospital’. 

The sound of the party was around the two of them, sometimes the wind would blow and dare make a sound. The boys were clearly avoiding coming back. Fleur was mentally cursing Vika for convincing her to come to the party to say sorry. Her plan was to wait until she had a podium in her first grand prix circuit and then ask for forgiveness. It worked with her ego. He thought that was too dramatic and she was working in being a more open person. Vika was right again. Damn Bulgarian. 

“This kinda blows up Harry’s idea.” Hermione said dragging Fleur back to the present. 

“What was his idea?” 

“He said I should have ordered you to apologize, because, I quote ‘I own your ass’.” 

Delacour laughed more loudly then she should have. 

“Technically, McGonagall own’s my ass. She pays you to keep it in line.” 

Hermione turned to face Fleur, not laughing as the French expected “See, there is always a ‘but’ with you.” 

Delacour knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Because she didn’t deserve easy. 

“You’re right.” She put her hands together in order to try and find some focus “I’m not expecting you to accept it, because you have the right not to. What I did that first day was disrespectful, childish, and cowardly. I could give you all the reasons why the Fleur of that day did that, but there is no excuse. Specially, when I told myself that coming to Scotland to train was supposed to be a new start for me.” 

Delacour in her slight drunk haze kneeled in front of Hermione “I’m here asking humbly for forgiveness, because you deserve it. I may not be able to be your friend anymore, and I accept that. But I would like for our professional partnership to be better, because I love working with you. I’ve realized things about me as a skater that I couldn’t before, just by you breaking down things. I used the questions in the beginning to try and piss you off and you turned them back on me. I noticed basic flaws. It was like eating the same morning _croissant_ every day until someone shows up and tell me there’s not enough butter and I never noticed. None of you comment on how I look, you tell me to get stronger! I’ve been struggling with the Axel for years because I couldn’t get bulky and...” 

Fleur was babbling and Granger tuned out a long time ago. She looked straight in those blue eyes, looking for something that she wasn’t sure herself. Was this what she wanted? There wasn't a feeling of solving a puzzle, but she could sense there was a little of relief. There was also acknowledgement. Fleur was the first person that she wanted to get praise from and she didn’t. That was it. She wanted the praise all along. Hermione Granger was looking up to Fleur Delacour without realizing, and it took the other girl saying ‘You’re amazing’ for her to make sense why she cared so much. Hermione just giggled to herself. 

“Please Fleur, just sit back before someone thinks you’re proposing or something.” 

“Do you want me to? At this point of me babbling I will accept anything so that the humiliation sounds less worse. Vika is somewhere filming this...” 

“Just shut up and sit Delacour.” 

Delacour sat down looking scared, an image you will not see in the circuit folks, grab your cameras. 

“I’ve spent the last month stressed out of my mind. Because of you.” Hermione was stern in her tone “You’re lucky it didn’t affect my work, cause it would have affected your work. Your season. Imagine if I had gone rogue to try and impress you and got you hurt again?” 

Fleur was aware that she made the girl life a little hell, but she hasn’t realized that it could have been much worse if Hermione wasn’t, that good. This reminded her of what she did before the Grand Prix final and felt a tear wanting to form. Her coach is a much better person than she is at the moment. 

“Hey, don’t cry.” Granger put her hand around Fleur’s shoulder “I am accepting your apology. But I need you to be aware of the damage you made. Because I won’t be allowing you to treat me like that again. Whatever is your mood.” 

“You’re perfectly right. As usual.” The blonde forced her tear back in. 

“Ok, so let’s do this again.” 

“What?” Fleur watched Hermione get up and looked at the hand that was being offered. 

“Hi Ms. Delacour, I’m Hermione Granger. I’ll be your jumping coach for this season.” 

Delacour opened a smile and held the girl’s hand. 

“Mon plaisir Ms. Granger. Looking forward to it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what that is? Growth.
> 
> By the way, for the peeps that do any kind of training/exercise, the hormonal thing I mention on this chapter is a real thing. There is an app called FitrWoman that tells you which kind of exercise/training would be best for each part of the monthly cycle. It has changed my life.


	5. Once More, With Feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> J. K. Rowling owns these characters.

“Why do you call Fleur, Isabelle?” Harry asked Krum from their position in the back porch of the house. The boys grabbed their beers and the wine at the car, coming back just in time to see in the distance a top tier skater on one knee in front of Hermione. “I would have said yes if I was her.” Ron mentioned taking another sip. Harry just managed to roll his eyes while Krum hid a smirk. 

“When she competed in the junior's division, she thought that by having her full name would make her sound more, what’s the word? When you feel that you can be fancy, or stylish something like that.” 

“Elegant?” Ron chipped in. 

“Yes! Elegant. Thank you, Ronald.” The two raised their bottles at each other and winked like good drunk bros. “So, Fleur Isabelle Delacour in her thirteen-year old elegance thought that using her full name sounded nice. But it was just hilarious to everyone. Before she made the change to Seniors, Papadakis took pity on her poor soul and told to stick with just Delacour for her own sake.” 

“That’s very cute.” Harry commented without thinking. 

“I do agree.” He looked back at the girls talking in the distance. “Fleur was always very true to her feelings, which makes her a very difficult person sometimes. We’ve clashed a lot in our years of friendship. That also makes her a very easy target in a sport that is known for being filled with lies, politics and manipulations.” Krum turned to both of the boys, straightening up and puffing a little bit, in a protective stance. “I’m the only one that calls her Isabelle in a positive tone. If you understand what I’m trying to say here.” 

Ron and Harry nodded. It is endearing to see how protective he is of Fleur. They can’t say or even imagine how life being a professional athlete is. Ron comes from a sports family that is focused on the most out of mainstream sports possible, from water polo to hawk training. From so many Weasley’s, only Ginny played footie, and it was for fun. Harry was always expected to be big, following his parent's footsteps after showing a promising beginning of career when young. Right now, a journalist is waiting to put his name on a headline still. 

They have their mental hurdles, but their personal value was never attached to a technical score. 

“Oh, they seem to have finished their engagement agreement. I’m going to go rescue Hermione from Isabelle.” And with that Krum walked towards the girls. 

Harry and Ron stayed in silence with their own thoughts until the ginger boy broke the silence. 

“I’ve been a very shitty friend to you, haven’t I?” 

Harry doesn’t know how to answer that. Ron hasn’t been a horrible friend, but he had the habit of vanishing when it affected his ego. And there was a limit to how much validation needs to be given for Ron to feel like he is not being left behind. 

“I don’t think you’ve been the shittiest friend.” Harry took his glasses to clean them on his shirt. “You’ve been around when I needed you. It’s just.” An impromptu pause was made. He could feel his anxiety acting. Talking about feelings made him want to puke. There was so much effort related to that. Harry just stole the words he once heard Hermione say “It’s hard for me to guess when something I enjoy is going to make you feel small.” 

Ron looked down to his feet. “Yeah, I can’t say I didn’t hear that before.” 

Harry felt guilty at the moment he said it. He didn’t want to hurt Ron, he just wanted to be understood. Instead, he used words that were used as reasoning to breakup with him. 

“Do you think if I moved out would help? Having a physical distance from me?” 

“Don’t you need a better rent to afford the skating practices?” 

“I can figure it out. Maybe go back to my parents for a while. Our friendship is more important than that. And if, giving you more space helps. I'll do it.” 

Harry’s body was reacting in the worst way possible. There was a lot going on, mentally and emotionally, for Harry to catch up and be able to articulate properly. The anxiety of being alone again bubbling inside his stomach. 

“Think about it.” Assuming his friend needed some more time away from him, Ron gave Harry an awkward hug and excused himself to go help Ginny with something. 

‘I need to get out of here’ Was the only thing that went through Harry’s mind. Walking inside the house, looking for somewhere to hide. Kitchen had people in a heated discussion. There was a couple making out in the living room. Going upstairs, his feet took him to Ginny’s room. It was getting harder to breathe, making his body fell even heavier. Ron’s words ringed in his head the same way that the memories of sleeping alone inside his old house until Sirius and Lupin could get there for the funeral. 

“Hey. What are you...” He heard a voice talking to him but he had no clue who was speaking. “I’m going to count to ten. If you can count with me. Focus on my voice.” 

“10” Harry took a long breath in as he heard the number. 

“9” There was a floor beneath him. Apparently, he was sitting down. 

“8” He managed to release the breath he took in. 

“7” It was a girl’s voice. 

“6” He could hear the wind coming inside the place he was. 

“5” The noise of the party showed up behind the wind noise. Faintly in the distance. 

“4” Harry managed to say the number, almost as a whisper. 

“3” Now a little louder. 

“2” The girls voice felt like it was coming with a smile now. 

“1” Harry opened his eyes. The ones he didn’t even realize he had closed. He managed to get to Ginny’s room, but only to fall down right by the entrance, leaning on the wall - by what seemed to be a pile of dirty football uniforms. 

“How you feeling?” His focus went to the blonde girl who was sitting on Ginny’s bed. Harry had the impression he knew her, but couldn’t remember for the life of him who she was. 

“Tired.” 

“I’m going to go grab you something to eat and a glass of water. Do you feel safer staying where you are or do you need help to move somewhere else?” The girl asked with a comforting smile on her face. 

“I feel better if I stay here if you don’t mind.” The girl nodded and got out of the room, leaving the door slightly open. In the time she was gone Harry focused on the small things inside Ginny’s room. Her skates were by her drying mat, meaning she must have skated earlier today. Different dresses on top of the bed that were probably discarded for the party. However, they were nicely put to the side of the bed, and one of her pillows was leaning on the wall with a book by it. 

Harry squinted his eyes to be able to read the title ‘Action in Perception’. 

“It’s about perception and consciousness.” The girl said offering him a cheese sandwich and a glass of water. The boy grabbed both and watched her take the book and sit on the floor, keeping a distance from him. Harry took a bite of the sandwich. 

“I always told Ginny that she needed to organize this room better. It just ends up smelling like used socks. Maybe if she added some flowers to help.” 

“Or an automatic febreze spray.” Harry added sarcastically. “Thought about just hiding one in here once, and scare the shit out of her when it turned on.” 

“You might be onto something Harry Potter.” 

He did know her and couldn’t recall. “I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to remember your name.” 

His room companion offered her hand for him “We never properly met. I’m Luna. Or Loony, whatever you prefer.” He shook her hand. 

“Do you really want to be called Loony?” 

“People call me that way behind my back anyway, if I do it, it takes the power away from it.” 

He was coming back to his senses as the conversation went by and ate the sandwich. It felt weird when he noticed the texture of the floor with his hands for the first time. Luna had opened her book again and gone back to reading. A comfortable silence filled the room, with the party muffled by the walls and the sound of pages flipping from time to time. That’s when he realized he barged in when the girl was probably trying to run away from the party. 

“I’m sorry you had to deal with me.” 

“It was no problem.” 

Luna looked at him and smiled again, and then back to reading. Harry would be lying if he didn’t feel caught by surprise by her behaviour. No questions, no awkwardness. He finished his sandwich and drank the water in one go. He looked at the distance she sat from him. Giving enough space to not feel invaded but also comforted by having someone around. 

“Have you dealt with panic attacks before?” Harry had no clue why he asked that out loud. 

“I started dealing with them after my mom died.” 

“How did you...” 

“Get better?” Harry just nodded. 

“I talked with my dad a lot. I shouted a lot. I talked with my dead mom a lot. But mostly a lot of therapy.” 

They went quiet. Luna waiting for Harry to be able to say what he wanted to say. 

“Did you ever feel that you were a burden to the people around you?” Harry’s breath seemed to get heavy again. 

“Constantly.” Luna got up from her spot and offered her hand to Harry. He accepted and she took him to the window with her, sticking their torsos out. “Close your eyes.” 

He had no clue what was going on, but decided to follow what she said. “Listen to everything around you. What can you hear?” 

Harry focused on everything around him. The party music had changed to ballads with drunk people singing along. Some sporadic shouts, probably from beer pong games and then he heard a voice and smiled. “I can hear Ginny shouting for Hermione to stop talking about work.” 

“Ginevra really has a dominant kink.” Harry opened his eyes shocked with the comment, but Luna was just looking at the stars. 

“We’re very small Harry. That scares some people, but for me it helps to put everything in perspective. It’s good to remember that even when we feel like the world is ending, it’s just our feelings betraying us. It’s the fear of being alone, of death, of not being enough.” Luna turned to look him in the eyes “Brought by things that we had no control over.” 

He broke the eye contact and looked into the darkness of the neighbor farm. “I just wanted to know how to solve my problem. How to make sense of what is happening. I’ve taken anti-depressives after my parents died. I have more control over my panics, but my emotions” Harry shook his head and allowed it to hang down while using his body as support on the window. “Small things make me go crazy. I get angry, I get nervous, I want to barf everything. And rationally I know it doesn’t make sense.” 

“When my mother died, I didn’t cry. Because I knew that death was a normal thing. Her dying didn’t affect me. But I was angry randomly, cried in the middle of the classroom. Nothing made sense to me. The anti-depressives helped me stabilize some of those emotions, but it took a lot of talking to figure out what was really wrong. I talked about what made me upset and what made me feel. I was lucky I had a great therapist, knew how to deal with kids. Long story short I was afraid of being alone. Of my dad dying on a random accident like mom and me being left behind.” 

“There is a solution then? For me?” 

“I wouldn’t call it a solution. It’s awareness. Of things that broke us, of allowing ourselves to heal.” 

“I’m tired of being a burden to other people.” 

Luna put a hand on Harry’s back and gave a gentle squeeze. 

“I doubt very much you’re a burden. If you were, you wouldn’t be here panicking and talking to a random person to avoid doing it to your friends.” 

Harry suddenly felt ashamed and very self-aware. He just blabbed out his issues to a person he just met. The will to move fast and apologize made him hit his head on the windowsill. Luna laughed. 

“You’re a silly one Harry Potter.” 

Sitting down on the floor again and holding his head with his hands Harry grumbled an apology. 

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I gave you permission to talk. If I didn’t want to be around you, I simply wouldn’t have.” She said from her place at the window. 

“Could you not tell Ginny?” Luna this time looked at him seriously. 

“I won’t tell her because you asked. But I will say, you need to talk to the people you trust. Not for them to give you the answers, but because you trust them.” 

“You might have a point.” 

“I have various points, the human body is a very interesting shape.” 

“What?” Luna got herself inside the room again and ignored Harry’s question. She went to Ginny’s desk grabbing a post-it and a pen. Writing something on it and giving the piece of paper to the boy sitting on the floor. He grabbed the piece of paper and saw that it was a phone number. 

Luna was already at the door with her book. 

“Text me or call me if you need someone to talk. I won’t be your therapist, but I can help you find one.” 

And with a wink and a smile Luna Lovegood left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really, really, reaaaaaaaally enjoy Luna as a character, concept and everything in between.
> 
> I've outlined everything and this story should end up with 13/14 chapters. Some of them extra stuff that I personally am excited to write.  
> Finally figured out everyone's short program and free skate music which, in the word's of Marie Kondo, bring me joy.


	6. Isn't It Lovely?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> J.K. Rowling owns these characters.  
> Any other characters are not based on real people, anything close to reality is a coincidence.
> 
> Who needs beta's when the world is ending outside.

With September, the rhythm in the Arena changes. There’s almost no time to talk, and when words are exchanged, they are related to an instruction or a notice of someone leaving the building. The rink was full when Fleur and Krum started training, but now you could see the real effect that they’ve had in bringing new students. Adult classes were stacked and had to share the ice with the kids, skating time was counted to a dot for everyone and the gym was locked for anyone that wasn’t from ‘Team Gryffindor.’

“I won’t complain, because I’m getting paid for all these extra hours, and it’s good for the Arena and everything.” Ginny managed to mutter out in between showing a t-stop to ten-year olds. “But I miss having time to pee in peace.” She usually crashed at Hermione’s during exams, not wanting to drive back home when there was training early in the morning. But now, she barely started her school year and was at her coach’s sofa-bed three times a week.

Harry and Neville were also getting the short end of the stick. Both with the most flexible schedule, they were teaching the kids and adults during the afternoons and evenings after training during the mornings. The only difference is that Neville seemed to feed of the energy of the kids and be more excited than ever, going back and forth from the University for his research and adding more ballet and gym hours to his schedule.

Harry just approached everything as means to an end. He enjoyed teaching, the looming competition pressure and fear of Ron moving out not so much. “He didn’t bring up the idea of moving out again. Yet” He added on a quick conversation with Hermione at McGonagall’s office. The girl was trying to figure out the managing scheduling for the next months, with the Grand Prix seeds about to be announced and the Great Britain National’s being held one week before the Grand Prix finals. “The thought of things getting out of hand in a couple of months makes me want to throw up.”

“You will have to consider hiring someone to do your managing job if you are looking into coaching full time. Or an assistant.” Adding the last part quickly before Hermione could throw a pen at him.

“I can do this, it’s just”

“A lot.” Hermione starred at her friend with a menacing look, he just smiled like a babysitter that found the kid with their hands in the cookie jar. “You should hire Ron. He would prefer working here full time than staying at the gym. And you know he is the best at dealing with parents and students.”

“Wouldn’t that make him move out more quickly?” Harry shrugged, not wanting to go into that conversation right now “You’re not wrong with that though.” She stopped writing another segment of plan D, that included back to back travelling for McGonagall. “Ron was always the people’s person from the three of us. I’m gonna give him a call later today after my ‘Grand Prix’ meeting.”

“The seeds coming out today already?”

“Yeah. And then they are off to France for an exhibition, then back here for our exhibition. Which I need to answer some journalists and get their credentials confirmed to avoid any weirdos. And you know what, I’m gonna give Ron a call right now.”

Hermione got up grunting to herself and running her fingers through her hair, leaving Harry alone. He looked at the clock, still half an hour for his next class, it’s not worth training for this short amount of time. Grabbing his phone, he selected a number and called.

“ _I’m sorry, I don’t want your service Raul.”_ Said the voice on the other side.

“Luna?” There was an unknown clinging sound in the back.

_“Oh, I thought it was Raul my internet guy. Who’s speaking?”_

“Harry. Ginny’s friend.” He could feel his fingers looking for a tip of skin to pull, afraid she wasn’t going to remember the weirdo from a week ago.

_“Yes, cute Harry with the glasses. How you feeling today?”_

“Much better, thank you for asking” Cute Harry? “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“ _Oh no, I’m just in the lab taking care of the lizards, what’s up?”_

“Ah, right? I’m not sure if Gin told you, but there’s an exhibition at the rink two weeks from now. I’m not presenting, but if you wanted to come.” Luna didn’t answer right away, but he noticed that the clinging sounds from before had stopped. She was waiting for him to complete the sentence. “I wanted to talk to you about what you told me last time we talked.”

 _“About therapy?”_ Harry could see Hermione making her way back into the rink through the glass door of the office. He didn’t know why having that conversation in front of her made him unease.

“Yeah. About therapy. Or we could go somewhere else if you don’t feel like watching it. Just thought it would be fun.”

_“I don’t mind the skating exhibition. I enjoy seeing Ginny presenting and Ron’s 80’s programs. Just wanted you to say the word therapy out loud. It helps. Why can’t you eat the damn fly sir?”_

“What?”

_“Not you, lizard number four. He’s in a mood today because I had to move his sunlamp. It’s a date then. I know the time already because Ginny put on my calendar. I’ll message you when I’m at the rink and I’ll find you. Is that okay?”_

Hermione came into the room looking at Harry with questioning eyes.

“That sounds good. I’ll let you go back to your lizards. Bye”

“ _Bye Harry!”_

“Who were you talking to?” Hermione inquired with a smirk.

“A friend of Ginny’s that wanted to come to the exhibition. Luna.”

“Luna! I like her. Weird, but always interesting conversations.” Hermione opened her laptop as she sat down and started typing.

“When did you meet Luna though?” Harry didn’t have time to think of a way out of the conversation as McGonagall entered the room, being followed by Fleur and Krum in training attire and still wearing their skates.

“Mr. Potter, I’m afraid I need to ask for you to vacate the room, as our meeting will have to start sooner than expected.”

“Yes, of course.” He got up grabbing his skate bag and left the room telling Hermione they could finish their talk at the end of the day. ‘He knows I’m coaching tonight, prick’ she smiled knowingly at him, and there was a small snort from Fleur in the back.

Hermione grabbed her computer and got up from the chair to allow McGonagall to sit on it. ‘I need to figure out how to get my own office here.’ Fleur and Krum had already taken the other two chairs and were taking out their skates, so her only option was to stay up.

“I’ve just got a call from the ISU communications letting me know of your allocations. It is not ideal.” The main coach grabbed the table calendar she had and moved to October. “Krum will be at Skate America and China Cup, Fleur at Skate Canada and Internationaux de France” She pointed to the four weekends on the month, but it was Hermione that completed the thought.

“We’re on back to back tournaments.” The two skaters exchanged glances. Both hoped they could be seeded at one tournament together, luckily NHK in Japan. Strategically you want to be in one tournament on October and one in November, allowing you to know which position you need to aim for. Being at the beginning leaves you with no chance but be at the podium, to gather enough points that puts you in the final. That meant being at the peak of their presentations right at the beginning of the season to have a month off and if luck is on your side, be at the peak for the finals in December. It is a strategical nightmare.

McGonagall took a deep breath and got comfortable on her chair. “It is far from what we wanted. I hate to admit it, but I won’t be able to follow both of you. Which means Ms. Granger, that you will have to accompany one skater and me another. How we’re doing this is the question.”

Hermione took her cellphone to google “Skate Canada this year is in Ottawa, it’s not as far as Las Vegas.”

“Yes, the simple solution is for me to accompany Ms. Delacour.”

“I’m sorry. But could I chip in before this decision is taken?” Krum moved to sit at the tip of the chair bringing his palms together. McGonagall waved for him to proceed. “I understand the travel issue. I’m not going to complain related to that. However, if I could make my case for you to accompany me.”

Hermione’s first reaction was to look at Fleur, who didn’t look surprised at all with the comment made by her rink partner. And as if noticing that eyes were on her, she glanced to Hermione and allowed the side that was facing her to roll up in a small ‘sorry’ smile.

“From the both of us.” Krum put his left hand on top of Fleur’s right arm “I’m the one that needs more help with choreography precision, and Fleur with jumps. I understand that the timezone would be difficult and I don’t want to minimize the effort you would be making to travel those distances. But I would be more comfortable if you were travelling with me. And going to Ottawa, then back to Scotland and then France would be as strenuous as Las Vegas - Shanghai - Scotland. The second option you would have more time to rest than the first.”

“Vika, it’s not fair to Ms. McGonagall.” Fleur looked at the older woman, who was deep into thought.

“I know, but I had to express my desires. Whatever is decided, I will accept.”

McGonagall was still to make a noise and Hermione sensed that a decision would not be done today. Whatever was in Minerva’s mind was taking a lot of time and consideration. “We don’t need to have a proper answer today. Let’s talk about it and see how we feel after the Paris Exhibition this weekend.”

Hermione finished and gave the skaters a simple head nod for them to leave the room. She noticed that Fleur tried to fake a sour expression that came when she heard Paris. Once they were out of the room, McGonagall finally spoke.

“I thought I stopped having to make difficult decisions a few years back. Tea?” Her jump coach denied it politely. Turning on her electric kettle, Minerva grabbed a satchel of English Breakfast and tossed inside her mug.

“How do you feel on coaching by yourself?” She asked Hermione.

“I’m not nervous. I might be on the day, but I don’t feel it’s something unachievable.” McGonagall hummed in response.

“If by any chance one of them get in the finals, we have to go to China again.”

“But that’s a month after France. We’ll have time to rest.” McGonagall focused on pouring the hot water inside her mug, not bothering to answer Hermione’s statement.

“Do you not want to go to any competition?” The younger coach dared to ask. Minerva started laughing.

“Quite the contrary. I would love to be in all their competitions. I assume the ISU made these seed choices because they think none of them have a chance of getting to the finals.”

“That’s absurd.” But was it? Krum has spent a year without showing up on competitions or ice shows. Fleur got hurt on a final that she wasn’t supposed to be in, and ended in last place. They were both twenty-five. Retirement was not imminent on people’s mind, it was expected.

Minerva took a sip of her tea “I have to agree with Mr. Krum. He is the one that would gain more with my coaching, the same way that Ms. Delacour could win with you around. If the circuit is expecting nothing of us, this is the moment we should do what they don’t expect.”

“It’s more than thirty hours of flight Minerva, plus the timezone issues!”

“So is the other option Ms. Granger. If you could please keep the tone of your voice low. I don’t need you babysitting me.” Hermione felt like a junior skater under her gaze and deflated on her chair.

“I’m sorry Minerva.”

“I will make a decision after accompanying them on their France exhibition. The flights are already expensive, to wait four more days won’t change the deficit on the arena’s account.” And with that Hermione understood she needed to leave McGonagall alone to think.

She made her way around the rink, not knowing what to focus on now. This meeting was supposed to be later in the day and longer than that. They didn’t even talk about who was in each tournament with Fleur and Krum. ‘The hole might be deeper than we thought’ Hermione grabbed her phone as she walked towards home, to try and see if the ISU released the complete schedule already. Missing Fleur talking with Mark Piller outside the arena.

“Thank you for the time Ms. Delacour” The tall and grey-haired journalist said, as he took out his recorder.

“Please, call me Fleur. I owe you that much.”

“Only if you call me Mark. And I never expected you to owe me anything.” He was a well-known journalist in figure skating, even though he covered ice sports in general. His work focused on longer in-depth stories and profiles of skaters and coaches, which gave him respect and open doors in most rinks around the world. He and Fleur met a long time ago when he was profiling the French team for the Olympics and always kept acquaintances talk during competitions, until the last grand prix final.

“Ready to start?” He put his recorder on top of the stone chess table they were sitting at. Fleur signed yes.

“I’m here with Fleur Delacour, French solo figure skater and recent transplant to the Godric Gryffindor Memorial Arena. How are you adapting to Scotland Fleur?”

Fleur laughed. A nice, well rehearsed one “I have to admit that it’s not my favourite place. That’s still France. But besides the weather and the food there are many things that are on the pro list.”

“What would them be?”

“The people.” Mark scribbled something on his notepad “I came here with promises of new air, perspectives, directions. And I’ve got all of it and more. I feel at ease here. McGonagall and Granger are a great team and I’ve improved considerably in the short time I’ve been in their care.”

“Does that mean we’ll see new jumps from you?” Mark raised his eyebrows, curious about the possibility of the skater bringing new tools to her performance.

“You will have to wait and see”

“The tease. Krum basically told me his whole routine already.”

“Vika doesn’t understand the word secrecy. I like keeping my cards close to my chest.”

“Is that why you never addressed the rumours of retirement?” Fleur went sour at the question, but she knew it was going to come up, better sooner than later.

“It didn’t make sense to me to address something that wasn’t real.”

“Fair enough” The journalist took more notes. “Could we talk about your colleagues now if you don’t mind?”

Fleur answered his questions as truthfully as possible. Yes, her colleagues are considered amateur skaters, but they do have a future in professional skating if they work for it, the coaches would make sure of that. She did not know anything about Harry’s past competitions, but she can attest that he is a very accomplished skater, teacher and supporter of the Arena. McGonagall is still the same person, if not more knowledgeable in creating choreographies that fit the music and skater. She is excited to perform this weekend in Paris at her former club rink. Seeing her family will be good before the start of the circuit and bringing some extra croissants also.

“How is your relationship with Hermione Granger? Is it different, in any way, having a coach that is younger than you?”

“Granger is…” How does she start describing her relationship with Hermione Granger? She thought of the girl in the middle of the ice, with crossed arms, focusing deeply into a movement. How many times she just stared at her talking with Vika, because she knew Hermione would be too focused to notice Fleur looking. “She is the best thing that happened to my career. She is so in love with skating and coaching that you want to be around her. In the beginning, I was very skeptical of her, I won’t deny that. We fought, and mostly because I was afraid that her age and inexperience would affect my performance. Specially after the horrible ending my last season had. I teased her constantly but she always kept composure and explained her reasoning for proposing a different exercise or training schedule. She tamed the worst in me, she made me a better skater without shouting or imposing any power on me.”

Fleur gave a pause to breathe and noticed that Mark was smiling at her like a proud father. It kept her babbling “It’s very refreshing to feel that we’re working together to reach a goal, and not that I’m being set on a regimen against my happiness. She makes me love skating all over again.”

“It’s interesting” The journalist closed his notepad and put it together with his pen on top of the table. “Viktor said something similar, but he wasn’t that articulate. Can I guess that there is a connection there? Have you guys become friends?”

Fleur knew what he was doing with these questions. Mark, out of everyone, would give her an opening to state something to the world if she wanted. The question is, if she wants to start opening that door, after desperately trying to keep it shut months ago. “She is someone I look up to.” Was the only answer she could give him. Maybe one day she could let that door open for herself.

Mark grabbed the recorder and put it inside his jacket after pressing some buttons. He looked at Fleur with a sympathetic expression now, which made the skater’s guts twist with nerves.

Lowering his voice “No one tried to publish anything related to your past relationship Fleur. I’ve been paying attention to anything that comes around my email or usual journalism gossip, there’s no interest in the name Delacour anymore.”

Falling out of the circuit by coming to Scotland was then a good decision. If there’s no interest it means everyone labelled her as a second-tier skater. A saving grace.

“Is she still covering the tournament?” Delacour asked without looking him in the face.

“I’ve seen her name on the press list.” Fleur went silent, looking at the trees. The leaves are starting to lose their green vibrance. Mark didn’t know what to say to appease the girl. He had seen the old Fleur Delacour during the interview, but the mention of her past girlfriend made her close up again.

“Thank you, Mark. For everything you’ve done.” The skater got up from her seat, forcing a smile on her face. “I have to go pack. But I’ll see you when I’m back, yes?”

They said their goodbyes and Mark was left alone outside of the complex. Next time they would see each other he would have a better understanding of what made Hogsmeade and Hogwarts special. With some local interviews lined up, Piller talked with other managers of the complex, the region restaurant owner’s and some parents that had their kids on their skating program.

He had already interviewed McGonagall, Fleur and Krum before they went to France, the rest of the skaters were easy to talk to. Most of his questions were about their thoughts and feelings, about growing up practicing a sport that doesn’t have a big audience there. It felt like his college days, seeing athletes that still very much loved what they were doing.

Ginny and Neville were extremely rational in their answers and expectations. They want to solidify their skating and peak in two to three years, the aim is to be constant and precise. There is no rush. Ron had dreams after dreams after dreams. He talked about going to the worlds and landing quads for the first time by observing what Krum and Harry were doing. Harry didn’t want to talk about his parents, avoiding the topic directly, only mentioning them related to investments done at the Arena and the money that was left as donation when they died. “I wanted to sell the house and give the money also, but my godfather, Sirius.”

“The horse trainer?” Mark looked up from his notepad.

“Yes. That’s him. He told me not to do something rash. To feel it out. I put the house for rent.”

“No plans of living there? You do share an apartment with Ron at the building complex don’t you?”

“We do. But I don’t think I have an opinion on what to do with the house yet.”

When the journalist called Harry a month ago to fact check, he felt the boy was a mesh of emotions, looking at him now he was certain. But there was a glint in his eyes, of a tired person that still wanted to fight off whatever issue they had. In his thirty years of interviews, he could also be sure that this boy would find a place in this sport that didn’t belong to his parents. This Gryffindor team was really something.

After the weekend, his interview with Hermione Granger was the only one he hadn’t crossed out of his list. She was extremely busy and kept apologizing as she passed by him, rushing to solve a problem or to keep her students in check. Mark just embraced the observation of her day to day life as part of the profile he intended to write. She would show up early at the rink with bread hanging out of her mouth or holding a coffee, go straight to the office as the morning skaters warmed up on the gym. When they left for the ice, she would be there giving instructions and correcting movements and jumps. Ron would bring them both lunch, and talk about the events and how things need to work for the exhibition during the afternoon, leaving after for training or home.

“You could at least let me do my program between Fleur and Krum.” The Weasley boy tried with a pout, that could have worked if he wasn’t stuffing his mouth with pie.

“Show me something that proves you’re the main event and then you can get the spot Ronald.” Mark wrote down that they were very close, but never crossed that line that proves they had feelings for each other. Not that he was including that on his profile, it was his father inclinations towards Fleur being too loud. ‘And I chose to not have kids to end up emotionally adopting every gay skater in front of me.’ He laughed over his coffee when looking at his notes once more.

McGonagall and her top skaters showed up at the rink again on Tuesday, probably having arrived the night before. Viktor was so energetic, that you could hear him laughing from inside the washroom. Fleur on the contrary, came back small. It seemed as if she wanted to occupy the least amount of space possible in order to not be seen. She was having a conversation with her main coach on the ice, Minerva only nodded to whatever was being said.

“Hi Mr. Piller.” Hermione’s voice shook him out of the focus on Fleur. “I’m really sorry it took so long for me to be able to sit with you. Hope it didn’t affect your work.”

“Not at all Ms. Granger. My plans are to stay until the last day of the exhibition, no harm done.” The younger coach sat down by him on the bleachers. “I imagine it is better for you to do the interview here than going somewhere else?” He asked taking his recorder out of the jacket pocket.

“It would help me a lot. I know the echo of this place isn’t the best for you.” Mark waved her off.

“Being inside rinks is part of my job, I’ll only hold the recorder closer to you if that’s okay.”

First, he covered her background. How Hermione got into figure skating, what did she do before coaching, and why the change. Found out that her main research at university was about body movement and its physics. “My major was in Physio, but I used my minor in physics to keep an ongoing research about muscle and movement development. At the time I was going to focus more on rehab, people that need motor help. I got tapped by McGonagall when I was looking for summer jobs and she needed help. It was supposed to be temporary.”

“Do you intend to eventually go back to your research?” Hermione crunched her face with the question.

“I never thought about it. I guess yes. There are things I advocate for that I would like to get back to. More inclusivity, better programs for individuals with born or acquired motor issues.” She started playing with her left hand using her right hand. Massaging her fingers as she thought and glanced at Fleur in the middle of the rink, waiting for the music of her short program choreography. “This work can also be done with skaters. It’s something I’ve been pondering for a while. Not the rehab part as we don’t work with that here. But maybe go back to the science lab with some data about bodies and muscle capacity. There are so many barriers that we can still cross on figure skating. Sorry, I started rambling.”

She wasn’t paying attention to Mark anymore, eyes fixed on Fleur. The song started echoing around the rink, she noticed that the journalist leaned back to also watch the choreography run. Hermione hated to admit but she hadn’t seen the full thing yet. She planned the jumps with Fleur and the sequence, but McGonagall was the one dealing with the final product, her job was to get the skaters ready for it.

Fleur started moving, following the piano and violin. Her character in this program was supposed to be heartbroken and lonely, trying to grasp the dark place she was. Hermione had planned a triple axel right at the beginning for her, to shock audiences and get the confidence going as the first jump. As the moment approached Hermione glanced at Mark. She wanted someone to witness how impressive Fleur had gotten, how their hard work had paid off. As the moment arrived, Delacour only did a double axel.

“What?” The jump coach was about to get up from the bleachers when the journalist put his hand on her shoulders and just pointed to the ice and mouthed ‘Watch.’ She turned her eyes back to the silver rain floating on the ice, trying to find what she was supposed to be focusing on.

And that’s when it hit her.

She was supposed to be looking at Fleur. Not the little segments that pertained to her job, but the whole. It was like watching waves in the ocean, fluid, certain of themselves and ready to crash. There was a reason why her career was longer than the average skater, that performance right there was art. Hermione remembered the other programs she watched to study Fleur, one of the reason’s she was excited to meet her. Late at night after more coffee than she should have had, Granger could have sworn that she was madly in love with some of the characters Delacour put on the ice. They were exquisite, full of expressions, entertaining.

This character, was just different from the rest. It felt real. As if she was using the jumps and movements to talk about an emotion that was deep within her and the usual confident women couldn’t let it come out fully. Because it would drown her on the waves that it created. Hermione felt a shiver on her spine as Fleur passed by closer to their side of the bleachers. Her expression, the heartbreak. The coach felt like reaching out, not wanting her to suffer like that.

The program came to an end with the character deflating in the middle of the ice, resigned with her emotions. You could hear a hair drop in the rink when Mark started clapping followed by Ginny, Neville and Ron. The French skater got up and gave her little audience a wave and went to talk with McGonagall. “Would you know the name of the song she is using Ms. Granger?” Mark asked her.

“It’s called Lovely if I’m not mistaken. Billie Eilish. If you excuse me, I need to go there, do something.” She pointed to the rink and the journalist only gave her a cryptic smile and nodded.

To say Hermione Granger was confused was an understatement. That program just took her for a ride and she couldn’t even grasp why, how and when. The only question that kept going around her mind was ‘What happened to her?’ And to try and process what she was feeling after all of this would take too long and she had a necessity of making sure everything was fine.

As she got closer to McGonagall, she exchanged glances with Fleur, who looked the other way and went off to the other side of the ice. ‘Did she just run away?’

“What can I help you with, Ms. Granger?” McGonagall asked. Apparently, Hermione was standing there staring at silver hair for longer than deemed proper. And on pure fast response fashion, she only managed to blurt out “Why didn’t she do the triple axel? Did you tell her not to?”

“Ms. Delacour and me talked about her expectations for this circuit and she doesn’t want to raise her technical score.” The tone in Minerva’s voice was definitive, which did not stop Hermione and her rushing emotions.

“That makes no sense, she lands that jump during training with more success than failure. She did it before going to France. Doesn’t she want to go to the finals?” She kept her voice volume normal, but the angry tone was there.

“I understand your frustration. However, I am not the target of it” Minerva’s didn’t even bother looking at her second coach. “She has her personal reason’s not to do it. You can talk to her if you want. But her decision is the final one. Now if you please, I have coaching to do.”

And with that jab, McGonagall left Hermione to her busy mind. That could only steal glances with blue eyes and murmur to herself. “Who broke you Fleur Delacour?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this one :D
> 
> For the skating calendar I am using what would be (maybe will still be) the 2020/21 dates.  
> Skate Canada would be in Ottawa, Skate America Las Vegas, Cup of China and Internationaux de France have TBA cities.  
> Final would be in Beijing, China.
> 
> I tried to do explanations of the competition talk inside the chapter, but if anything got confusing, just comment and I will fix or explain it to ya.


	7. Extra Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not a story chapter, I am sorry, but this needs to be said going forward.

Hi!

As someone that is on the internet I'm pretty sure you're aware of everything that's happening in the world. And this fic being a Harry Potter and also a figure skating one needed to have some things said as we go forward, because I wouldn't be able to live with myself for not using this platform for it. (The fact that I am also from south america, living in north america, being a white person that is now categorized as POC just makes me want to scream at the world even more, either way this is not about that)

I know this is probably your happy space, so I understand if you don't want to read this, but I felt this was necessary.

First of all, **Trans live matter. Black trans life matter. Trans women are women.**

Pride month was started because of trans black women against police brutality, and to deny that is just insane. I'm not going to comment on the owner of these characters opinions, because I am exercising my right of the death of the author. HOWEVER, bare in mind that _it is very hard_ to separate the author from the writing, because we can see her politics in the book. Going forward, this needs to be something addressed when there are new readers. It is our duty as fans to do that. And I encourage you to start thinking of them like that, and as good fic writers and readers, spin it, make it yours. **But we need to accept that the author is problematic.**

I already went off years ago when she released the other "magical schools" and how they were PREJUDICE AS F*CK. So I haven't been a fan of that women for some years already.

Which leads to my point where, I understand I haven't given proper skin tones to the characters in this fic. Mostly because I, in a privilege perspective of the world had in mind that it allows for people to put whatever color they want. **That is not enough.** From now on I will specify what color the characters always had for me (since I was a kid when I read Harry Potter in portuguese, yes I was a little surprised when they cast all white when younger, but then forgot because, hey! systemic racism taking over). **Hermione is black, Harry Potter is brown in this fic. And I will go on mentioning it from now on.**

The most important thing I learned when I was a History major is that you can't read any text before reading about the author. This was a skill I have kept close to my heart since.

My second topic is, **figure skating is a racist sport.**

I'm not talking about your fave. From what I understand the skaters are actually more open than the system they are in, but a lot of them are complicit to it because without it their careers end. This is the system structure to keep those things in check. Skating is in nature elitist, because of the cost and limited training space. Their judging system rewards bodies that fit their idea of what a movement should look like, which are skinny white ones. The iconic back flip by Surya (french team) was banned not because it was dangerous, but because she was black. Figure skating has so many dangerous movements that are allowed to exist, because it is a dangerous sport.

_Blades attached to your feet, going at high speeds, do you understand the insanity that it is????_

It rewards boldness, when it's done by the right people. This also excludes bulkier women, resulting in so many athletes coming forward with food and self esteem issues. Because you can't be strong, but then you don't land the triple axel if you're not short and a pre-teen because physics.

All these topics of the trash side of figure skating I was going to touch going forward in the fic. But I want you to be aware of them. If you are a reader that follows figure skating, remember, the ISU is a very shady organization.

After my huge rant I encourage you to check out black figure skaters like Mae Berenice and even Surya's competitions. Donate to figure skating communities that embrace diversity like this one https://figureskatinginharlem.org

Thank you for reading this, a new chapter should be up soon. I've just been really busy trying to keep up with well... _everything_

Lots of love. Specially to our black and trans comrades. You matter and you're important, duck those pigs.

#DefundThePolice


	8. The Hogwarts Champions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not a journalist, this is far from a proper profile. But It was fun to do it.

_Written by Mark Piller_

I can say with confidence that there is no current tradition of figure skating in Great Britain. This island invented football, rugby, cricket and many other sports, exporting them to the world. Which makes it even more mysterious, why a small city a few hours from Edinburgh, became the most talked place in rinks around Canada, USA and Russia.

When I took the train to Hogsmeade, the questions I had were for Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum. Whom, are coming back from a last place on a Grand Prix Final and forfeiting a season for reason’s unknown. Top tier skaters, that in weird circumstances chose the most uncommon path of coming to train here. The whispers in the figure skating world is that they wanted to run away from something, have a last season and retire in peace. As they both will be twenty-six soon and haven’t been seen in podiums consistently. However, as I started my interviews, I realized that was far from the truth. There is something in the air at Hogsmeade.

Godric Gryffindor’s Memorial Arena is a small building, with a concrete outside, that doesn’t really invite people in. Its inside is not much different, built to be a rink and nothing more. If you compare with the three other building’s around it, you would prefer to go swimming, play some footie or maybe try some fencing. There’s no reason to go inside the Arena unless it’s a really hot summer day, and you need to cool down.

But that’s when they trick you.

As soon as you enter, you’ll notice that there is no escape. The red and gold banners will seem tacky at first glance, but you will love them, even buying a small copy from their small shop. The vending machine never breaks, there is always some music playing in the background. And most important, you will fall in love with whoever is on the ice at that moment.

“The people. They are what make this place special” Viktor Krum, three times European champion and the new addition to the Gryffindor team, repeated that statement consistently during our interview. He looked healthy, happy and excited for the 2020 season, talking about his program and making sure I had written down every movement he will perform. ‘Proud’ would be the word to describe the Godric Gryffindor team, and Viktor Krum chose it because of it.

The Arena was renovated by James and Lily Potter, the deceased ice dancing couple, after moving to Hogsmeade to raise their son, Harry. They wanted somewhere that people could learn skating and be happy. “There’s no feeling like gliding on ice. I hope we can share our love with the Hogsmeade community” was a quote in one of the articles carefully cut and framed on the right wall by the rink’s entrance.

Right after they took over, the Potter’s hired Minerva McGonagall, an acquaintance of them and mostly known for her intrinsic and emotional choreographies. Her tall figure is even more imposing in skates, bringing respect and attention from any rowdy junior that decided the rink was their playground that day. Minerva is without a doubt the center piece of Godric Gryffindor’s Arena. When hired she increased the number of students and also started a system of consultation and choreography for professional skaters, bringing them to the Arena for certain periods of the year.

In five years, figure skating became the normal in the city. The rink was self sustainable and there were talks about a group of skaters, James and Lily’s son included, getting ready to compete at Juniors. That’s when the worst happened.

The Potter’s suffered a car accident, killing both of them and orphaning Harry. It took almost a year for paperwork and ownership to be sorted, leaving the rink closed. No team went to Juniors, classes dwindled, not even McGonagall’s skills managed to keep the inflow coming. The Arena became haunted by the ghost of what it could have been. “My parents wanted somewhere that skating was the forefront. Not winning prizes, no pressure for the skaters. Just being happy inside a giant freezer.” Harry told me over a cup of coffee. The weight of a last name still on his shoulder’s.

“I kept part of the money left as investment in the Arena. I was too young to control it, but my godfather accepted my wishes. Minerva took the role of Manager and maintained the rink afloat. The only thing that kept me coming back to skate and train were the memories. They keep me going even in the hardest of days.”

Harry used to be an ice dancer with Ginevra Weasley, a pair with potential, but in Potter’s own words, “Ginny needs someone up to her level” joking about his stature. Ginevra and her new partner Neville Longbottom have been training with McGonagall and compete in this December’s Great Britain National’s. Harry will also compete but the singles category. I used the opportunity to ask about the supposedly Juniors team that would have existed the year his parents passed away. He confirmed me it was real, and it was composed of five students, but only three of them, including him, were still around. The other two were Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Ronald will also compete with Harry during the National’s this year, his fourth overall. He is the older sibling of Ginevra, but the younger of five brothers. “We’re a sports family, but a very eclectic one. My brother’s play and work for cricket, water polo and equestrian federations. My dad works for the government, in the sports development department. It’s just something that Weasley’s do at this point.” Ronald was the first skater that I saw on the rink when I arrived, performing one of his programs with an 80’s power ballad. He says that he might not be the best skater, but at least he wants the audience, and himself included, to have fun.

“He is a good skater. The issue is that he doesn’t believe in it. A lot of mental game there.”

Hermione Granger gave me this passing commentary as she was about to teach the junior skaters. It would still take a week for me to be able to sit down and have a chat with her, before their exhibition performance to showcase the Gryffindor team. Running everywhere to teach, coordinate, prepare, I wondered if she was sleeping and eating properly.

If you were to look at the definition of ‘hard working’ in the Oxford Dictionary, you would see a picture of Hermione Granger in her coaching outfit there. Probably the youngest coach in the Grand Prix circuit, and one of the few black ones, Granger is not far from impressive. The kids love her, the adults respect her and the professional skaters admire her. “I am able to land my triple axel now because of her.” Said Delacour, nonchalantly, as if the information wouldn’t be a matter of speculation and talk among her peers at the circuit.

“I understand that figure skating is a sport with a lot of bias towards athletes body expectations. But I make the effort to come to work not thinking about them. My goal is for my athletes to thrive, so I will find those ways. Constant gym, strengthening and off the ice work is really important if we’re getting them to jump safely and have a long career.” A sober approach that will take Granger far in this game.

It’s that mentality that brought Delacour here. After seeing her performance and demeanor in the last Grand Prix, you wouldn’t be able to envision the skater that I interviewed this September. “There’s a feeling of being able to do more. Even if this season ends and I don’t qualify, I can still compete because there’s so much room to grow.” Fleur, similar to Krum, kept pointing out that the secret here was the people. “It’s not the competitive spirit. That we can find easily, but it’s the spirit of process. You have to follow those steps to get where you want, and we will respect that time.”

That’s their secret. Process. Between the rise and initial downfall of the Arena, the main pieces didn’t give up on the process. The rink is full again, McGonagall and Hermione are doing extra hours together with other teachers. Fleur and Krum have done workshops during the summer to bring more resources to the Arena.

Lily’s Potter dream of sharing the love for figure skating is kept alive by everyone that works in the Godric Gryffindor Team. And I dare say, they champion it.


	9. The War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated with two chapters, so I would check the one before this first.
> 
> I don't own these characters, the one who must not be named does.

A bundle of paper was dropped on Fleur’s lap, nicely kept together with a purple clip. The title said “The Hogwarts Champions” with ads for cat food and toys on the side of the text.

“You know I can read the article on my phone, right?” She looked up to face Hermione. They were sitting at the Heathrow departing section, waiting for their time to start boarding. Her coach has been given the job of accompanying Fleur, as McGonagall decided she wanted to accompany Krum. Delacour would have loved it, if it had happened two weeks ago. Right now, it was giving her headaches.

“There’s a feeling of being able to do more. Even if this season ends and I don’t qualify, I can still compete because there’s so much room to grow.” Granger said while still standing up with her arms crossed. She was quoting from the article Piller had written, and yes, Fleur said those words before being hit by reality in the face during her Paris exhibition. If she pretends Hermione is not there maybe she will leave her alone.

“ _Passengers for_ _Air Canada flight to Ottawa number 565 boarding is now open for group three”_ came a voice from the intercom and the French skater couldn’t be more thankful to an unknown god at that moment. She got up and dragged her hand luggage to the line. Granger, on her tail, went quiet. She seemed to not want to keep going on this topic with other people listening.

Boarding was quick. The usual line inside the plane, but both managed to put their hand luggage above their seats and sit quietly by each others side. Fleur saved the printed article that Hermione gave – threw at - her inside the front seat pocket and tried to get as comfortable as possible in her seat, closing her eyes. She heard the instructions being given in English and French, ‘Ah Quebecoise.’ As the captain announced take off, it dawned on her. Hermione was dead silent. Opening her eyes and looking at her travel companion she understood why. Hand clutching the arm rest between them and looking straight ahead, Granger was trying to control her fear of planes. ‘That’s why she went quiet,’ Fleur put her right hand on top of Hermione’s, who looked at her and laughed nervously.

“Never was a fan of planes.” On their flight from Edinburgh to London they seated separate from each other, and Hermione didn’t muster the courage to ask to trade seats ‘because a grown woman was afraid of flying’. But to her surprise, Fleur didn’t show any judgmental signs in her expression, on the contrary, understanding.

“My sister is also not a big fan of planes. She usually asks for one of the family to hold her hand.” Fleur offered her palm to Hermione and by realizing what she just did, quickly added “If you think that would help you. I don’t want to impose.”

Hermione didn’t have a lot of time to decide as the plane started accelerating, holding as firmly as possible to Fleur’s hand. If the strength of the hold was crushing her hand or the sweat was bothering, Delacour said nothing. As the plane reached cruising altitude, the skater asked if Hermione had ever been to Canada. They talked about other competitions that brought Fleur there and a very funny story of a drunk Krum trying to hug a raccoon after a competition in Mississauga. “You see, the city is in the Toronto area, not in Toronto. And our flight was early in the morning, so after the gala we decided to roam. Two idiots. That raccoon could have given him rabies.”

A flight attendant stopped to ask what they would like for lunch, making them let go of each other hands. Hermione missed the grounding hand as she felt the airplane doing its small movements and adjustments. Eating gave her something to occupy her mind besides the impending doom that was being inside a giant flying tuna can. When she showed the first signs of fear of flying, her dad suggested that researching how they work could help. Fight irrationality with rational. ‘Airplanes are safer than elevators, consider that’, he told her one day over dinner.

Little did they know that some irrationality was not so easily dissipated with information. Hermione Granger knew she could fly that plane if there was an emergency, it still didn’t avoid her stomach turning at every little change in altitude. She finished eating quickly and took her tablet from her backpack, looking for something else to occupy her mind. ‘Why can’t planes just stay completely still?’

She decided to go over footage. Having uploaded every jump Fleur has done in the last two weeks, slowed them down and calculated their angle and speed entrances. Data and numbers, focusing her mind completely since 97’. Food tray was gone, they offered coffee and tea, Fleur went to the washroom and came back. Hermione must have been looking and making notes for almost an hour when she reached the triple axel folder, glancing over to her seat neighbour. Eyes closed and listening to music, she could proceed.

Since the skater came back from France her priorities changed. There was no more talk of podium strategy, only of doing her best and finishing the season without any injury. Hermione didn’t take that well. She didn’t work her ass off to get Fleur ready for a high technical score, for it to be throw out in the wind as if it was nothing. The proud annoying French skater that she knew would never give up on the chance of politely flipping off journalists and haters.

Hermione at the beginning thought it was just a confidence issue. Encouraging her over training sessions should do the trick. She couldn’t be far from wrong. Delacour only raised her eyebrow every time a sugar-coated compliment went into her direction, as if it had offended her footwork skills. Hermione’s second option was to fill her with data about her jump and body physics.

“You don’t need to be afraid of it. You can handle it” Granger said the week before, offering Fleur an oatmeal muffin over their gym chat.

“I’m not afraid. I just don’t see reason to it.” Was all Delacour answered leaving the gym without offering any other explanation to it. Hermione rubbed her head thinking about this. Looking at the footage made her even more frustrated. The jumps were fine, she did it in training just the other day because Hermione asked her too. Why she couldn’t just put it on her program?

The plane jerked down for a moment and the first reaction was to grab Fleur’s hand again. This made brown eyes meet with blue. “You okay?” Hermione nodded and saw the blue eyes glancing quickly at her open tablet and back to her.

“You should try to sleep. We’re going to get there in the middle of the afternoon, and we’ll need to stay awake to adjust our internal clock.” Fleur voice was husky and the guilty feeling of being the one who disturbed her sleep hit. “Here” the French woman adjusted their hands to interlace their fingers and patted her own shoulder with her free hand.

“Just use my shoulder as head support. I’m not as bony as I look.” Hermione couldn’t control how her eyes rolled at this. She felt like a child, but also a warmth in her heart. It was nice that her fear was being treated with care. She did as she was told, getting comfortable on Fleur’s shoulder after turning off her tablet. That didn’t mean she was going to be able to sleep.

This position was nice. Fleur breathing rhythm helped minimize the sinking feeling inside of her when turbulence hit the plane from time to time. It was ironic that she was next to someone who exuded an air that everything was going to be fine, when their words were the inverse. Fleur’s program came to mind.

Delacour, inside, was heart broken. That information was still difficult to process in the mind of Hermione Granger. Ginny’s voice echoed in her head ‘Loud people are usually trying to take our eyes from the skeleton’s in their closet’. Of course, it came from a more negative mindset, as Ginny was certain Fleur had left someone back in France and felt guilty. It still didn’t make sense. She had watched the recording of the exhibition in Paris, Fleur was excited coming in and out of the ice from her short program. However, the long program was a disaster. Her body was there, her mind wasn’t. Talking with McGonagall just made her even more sure that the older coach knew what happened but wouldn’t disclose it.

Hermione wasn’t as low to go look for gossip on the internet, so she could only guess it was personal. She kept ruminating those thoughts of Fleur Delacour for the whole time the skater slept. Once or twice Granger managed to doze off for half an hour. When they finally reached Ottawa, she was exhausted.

“Oh no, you’re not.” Fleur grabbed Hermione by the shoulder to refrain her from sitting on the hotel bed. “Go take a shower. If you sit there now, you’re never getting up.”

The coach grunted and moved to the bathroom. She heard Fleur shouting something about coming back in half an hour to check on her but the warm water was already taking her to another plane of existence. Eight hours of anxiety really drains you. “Mental note to find some kind of sleeping pill for the return trip.” Hermione ticked a box in the air with her finger.

Once out the shower, she felt more awake and got dressed. Delacour knocked on the door when she was drying her hair, bringing coffee. “And I thought I was the coach.” The French just winked at her with a smile. They drank their coffee in silence looking over the room window. In a couple of years, they would talk about this moment again and find out they were both thinking about the same thing. ‘Maybe this trip could be a good chance for figuring things out.’

They shared silence and talked a bit, holding until dinner to then succumb for needed sleep. Hermione was so tired that the thoughts of Fleur Delacour and her broken heart only came back again the next day. Because to say the French skater was jumpy was an understatement. Since breakfast the blue eyes kept looking everywhere for something or someone. She checked every face that came into the van taking them to the Arena, stared at everyone’s faces during the walk from the parking lot to the warm up space.

“Isabelle!” Gabrielle Papadakis hugged Fleur from behind.

“Gabby! How are you?” Fleur had mentioned to Hermione the day before she wanted to introduce her to the ice dancing duo. ‘It’s your first Grand Prix, I know you want to network, so I will help with whomever I know.’

“So, you’re the one who managed to put Fleur in her place?” Gabrielle asked with a wide grin and making Fleur’s face reach the same tone of red on her France uniform jacket.

“She’s a coach Gabby, give her respect.”

“Miss Delacour here was really a handful, but eventually she apologized and accepted her place.” Papadakis laughed a little bit louder, which echoed in the Arena hallway.

“I like you. I hope we can work together someday. Et Belle, elle n’est pas ici. Respire.” And with that Gabby was gone and Fleur took a deep breath.

“What did she say?”

“For me to stop being tense.”

Fleur went to do her stretches and warm up routine on her reserved mat. Hermione noticed that the jumpiness stopped. Which means Papadakis knew something. Everyone knew something besides her, this was getting ridiculous. It was hard not to take this personally at this point. Was it because of her? Did Fleur decide that she didn’t trust Hermione again? This was infuriating and degrading. All over again.

The assistant signaled that their group was allowed on the ice for training. Fleur tried giving Hermione a smile but she ignored her, only grabbing the skate guards and jacket of her skater. “Do some warm up laps, and then come tell me how your ankles are feeling today.” Fleur seemed to absorb some of the angry energy her coach was giving and scoffed as she left.

Eyes were upon her. Granger could feel them digging on her sides and back. She knew training day would be difficult, the new young black coach, too much for people to not be interested in observing her every movement. It felt like a human zoo. The eyes of audience, journalists and other coaches were only throwing more wood into her anger. Fleur came back, with her professional posture and face. They heard a camera shutter opening and closing as they stared at each other. Ginny would have that one framed on her house for fun as soon as she saw it the next day. Two monoliths staring at each other, with puffed chests and poker faces. It could be an MMA ad.

“Jumps?” The French kept her voice monotone.

“The usual. Start on singles and go increasing until the triples.”

Fleur nodded and went out. And as expected she only performed a triple lutz, no axel. She came back to face Hermione.

“You didn’t finish it.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Go do your triple axel Delacour.”

“I’m not going to do a jump I’m not performing tomorrow. There are expectations.” That was it. Hermione snapped.

“For fucks sake.” She felt some eyes turning to them. “So you know you can do it, and you won’t do it out of what? Spite? Make us look bad?”

“Can we not have this argument here?”

“No. We need to have it, so might as well do it now. Unless you want to have it before your short program tomorrow.”

“Can’t you just accept that I want to have a quiet season? Skate safe, be consistent?”

“There is no such thing as a quiet Fleur Delacour.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I’ve spent the last two months with you.” Fleur winced quietly at that specific phrase and looked around, to see if anyone caught that.

“You’ve been _coaching_ me for the last two months. You don’t know me as a person.”

“Fine. That’s how you’re going to behave? I’m your coach, and I’m ordering you to go do the triple axel.” Hermione pointed to the ice. More people paid attention now with the wavy body movement.

“What if I fall and get hurt because you’re being stubborn?” Fleur did her usual position of looking down on you from the top of her skates. Fire would come out of Granger’s mouth if they kept this going. But, being an expert, she took a deep breath and did what she knew would work against a French skater that wants to push your buttons. Be cockier than her.

“I trained you. You won’t.”

If you were paying close attention you would have seen Fleur’s mask fall for a split second. She didn’t want to do it. How to explain that she knows she can land a jump, but that she doesn’t believe in herself? Her therapist talked her through, she believed she was ready to go back to competitions. But Fleur was so afraid of any attention on her, and what it would also bring. And there’s also this great woman in front of her, being even more stubborn than ever. Granger made her want to try, to be in the spotlight again, maybe finally be herself, because she has nothing to prove to the world of figure skating anymore.

“Fine.” She muttered and went around to get ready for a jump. Everyone was clearly paying attention to their fight. Skaters gave Fleur more room and Hermione could see some audience filming whatever would be her next movement. And then she did it. It was quick, the way it’s supposed to be. The audience gasped, coaches stared at Hermione, some giving her approving nods, others crunching their faces. Hermione felt triumphant in her anger. Fleur once again stopped in front of her.

“Happy?”

“Did it hurt?” The blonde woman laughed and Hermione continued. “Let’s add it to your program tomorrow.”

“Do whatever you want. But if I end up in last place that’s on you.”

She wouldn’t, both of them knew it, and that scared Fleur to the bone. Every journalist that was in the Arena tried to talk to them. Hermione politely declined everyone saying they could ask any questions tomorrow after the short program, and guided both of them back to the hotel. The coach was happy her anger bet worked. She wasn’t that excited by the doom feeling in her skater’s face. Was it selfish of her to make Fleur do the jump? All because she was offended, she wasn’t allowed into the group who knew of the woman’s secrets?

“It’s the best for her career.” She told herself as she wrote the email to McGonagall about the program update. Viktor and her were on a plane towards China, after competing on Skate America. He only lost to Nathan Chen, which brought more pressure onto team Gryffindor. People were talking.

Fleur was on conditioning right now, she should go see her, but by the climate of their silent lunch Granger thought it was better to give her space. She grabbed her phone and called Harry. He picked really quickly.

“Mione? Everything okay?” By the background noise he was in the rink.

“Yeah. Did you get my message yesterday?”

“I did. It was good to know you guys got there safe. But that’s not why you’re calling me right?” The sound of a door closing came and the rink noise vanished. He must have gone into the gym or the office.

“I….” Why was she calling again? Oh, yeah. The guilt feeling that her anger was ignoring. “I think I did something shitty.”

“Which would be?”

“I forced my hand for Fleur to accept adding the triple axel in her program.”

“That does sound like you. I imagine she wasn’t happy.”

“She looks like death came for her. Hasn’t spoken a word to me since we came back from training.”

“Have you tried talking to her?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“We’re having the same conversation from Ginny’s kitchen with inversed roles. You know that don’t you?”

“Maybe….”

“You’ve been on this saga to get her to do the jump, but the last thing you did was trusting her with her emotions. Or even asking about them.”

“When you say it like that it seems very simple.”

“Because it is. We just don’t see it when we’re in the eye of the storm.”

“You’ve become so wise Harry Potter.”

“It’s all the therapy.”

“You didn’t tell me you were going to therapy.”

“It’s something I’m going through with her. Working on sharing my troubles. What I assume Fleur is also. Which is why she hasn’t told you anything unprompted.”

Hermione rubbed her face. She just feels silly.

“It feels like I had no character development until you gave me it.”

“You did.” He laughed on the other side of the phone “It just wasn’t the kind of development you are focusing right now.”

“Luna has been rubbing off on you.”

“She’s very wise. I do have to go now ‘Mione. Teach the last class of the day.”

“Thanks Harry. Send a hug to Ron if you can?”

“Always here for you and will do.”

The coach got up from her chair and grabbed her jacket to go after Fleur. She knocked on her room, she went around the gym, she walked around the neighborhood, nothing. Tried calling but she wouldn’t pick it up. ‘Great. Now I’m the coach who lost her skater before the first competition of her career.’ Coming back to her room, she tried to keep calm. If she went to the reception or started asking the other skaters it would get even more suspicious. Fleur wouldn’t forfeit, would she?

“Granger, you fucked up big time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just half of a chapter. Because I threw my outline out the window when I realized this is not a tv episode that I can shove scene after scene. It's a bad habit.
> 
> Hope you liked it either way and the fluff compensated for the suffering of a very clueless Hermione that doesn't realize she is just crushing real hard.


	10. The Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry/not sorry for the chapter flood. They were all supposed to be one and it got out of hand *cries in bad writing management*

Fleur was coming back from the gym when she saw Hermione knocking on her hotel room. Instead of facing her, she hid in the emergency stair and waited for her to walk by towards her next destination. She ran herself out of emotions, but there was no way she would face her coach. Whatever Hermione was dealing with was not hers to carry. Not now.

Making sense of the emotions running through her came first and she couldn’t do it with the hurricane that is Granger right now. ‘Specially when she is one of the reasons I can’t think straight.’ Fleur snorted at her own mental pun. At least she could still joke with her misery. She threw her running clothes to the side of her bathroom floor and stepped in the shower.

Water was the only thing that could keep her calm. Maybe later she should go stare at the river with a cup of tea. If she ever figures out what to do. “I need to compete, but I’m afraid to” she told herself, voice echoing on the shower walls. “Why am I afraid? Because it will gather attention and Louise will come interview me.”

Louise. Months later and still pestering her mind. Still the source of nightmares and fear. How could she have loved someone so selfish? She already had to face her and the experience showed that she wasn’t even close to be recovered from that relationship. The panic and fear that she could destroy her career at any moment by just taking her out of the closet. By telling the world who she really is.

Her therapist talked to her about it. Why she was so afraid of it. There are so many open gay man skaters now, she could be the first top tier woman. Pave the way for so many young skaters that feel the sport will never welcome them. Her program decisions were about it, but when she was faced with the chance of being out, the panic made her retrocede. The relationship wound was too fresh, it could open at any moment if pressed too hard. It was way worse that she felt like the decision of coming out wasn’t in her hands.

Which brings to Hermione. She told McGonagall, why she couldn’t tell her? Well, she knew the answer. To ignore that she was infatuated with her coach was dumb even for her gay self. Coming out could mean rejection, and she prefers if she never speaks about it. Which makes it harder when the other believes in her so much it hurts. “It’s her job to believe in you.”

She finished getting dressed and sat down on her bed. Her costume for the short program hanging in front of her. “That doesn’t mean that she was right to do what she did this morning.”

Everything is so confusing and Fleur doesn’t know how to solve this. Or even if she wants to solve it. Just show up tomorrow, do your program and be done with it. Numb your way out of this season. No one would put it against her if she didn’t get better results than last year. She is an “old” skater now either way. “Maybe I can start coaching at the Arena.” But thinking of having to see Hermione every day after a disappointing season made her stomach growl.

Fleur grabbed her phone and answered one of the ten messages Hermione sent. Letting her know she was alive and she would see her tomorrow. That would make the coach worry even more and she couldn’t care less. There is a limit to what she can do, and dealing with other’s sense of guilt is not her job. Hugging a pillow, the French allowed to be taken by her exhaustion, waking up the next day with her alarm. She had messages from her family, Vika and Harry saying good luck today.

Organizing her costume and skates in her duffel bag, she got dressed and left her hotel room. To face the doom of the day. What she found was Hermione, dressed in a long burgundy winter trench coat with a gold scarf. Gryffindor colors, looking imposing as the coach that she is. “This look suits you.” Hermione looked up to face Fleur, she wore make up to fake that she didn’t sleep very well.

“Thank you. Breakfast?” Delacour nodded and they made their way. The room was filled with skaters and coaches getting ready for the competition. Some quiet, others laughing loudly. Everyone had their different ways of dealing with nerves. Fleur was convict of approaching this with numbness. Perform, do what she needs to do and get out of there. No more emotional investment. Hermione hasn’t spoken a word, and she didn’t seem that she wanted to. She just stayed out of the skater’s way.

At the Arena, Fleur started her warm up, going through the motions when Hermione vanished. This made her heart constrict. Granger should be here with her, whatever the reasons. She was about to stop her jumping warm up when her coach showed up, holding a coffee mug and a piece of paper. Putting her hands on her hips, Fleur waited.

“I haven’t submitted your technical score yet. I needed to confirm if you still want to do it. I should have talked to you in the beginning instead of making assumptions. It was wrong of me to push you to do it, and I will deal with the journalists saying that I took the jump out of your program.” Her speech was thought and rehearsed. It didn’t stir any emotion on Fleur. “I’m sorry I forced you to do something against your will. I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position in the spotlight just because I think you’re ready. You’re the one that needs to be ready.”

‘You’re already ready, you’re just giving yourself excuses to not do it’, was what Louise told her before she tried the axel at the final and got hurt. Because she wasn’t ready, and her girlfriend couldn’t see it. Her heart told her to ignore the fear for the first time.

“I’m still going to do it.” She was ready. The preparation time happened, she took her time, she trusted the process, it was time to jump. Hermione nodded and turned to leave when Fleur held her hand. “After you deliver it, could you come back? I’d prefer if you were around. Even if it’s silent company.”

Her coach gave her a weak, but sincere smile. And something happened. Fleur couldn’t pinpoint what it was. She just felt something open inside of her, and she felt light. Maybe she spent all her fear and worry yesterday and her body couldn’t produce anymore of that. Fleur knows that once she felt fed up with feeling sad and just, stopped. It took days of crying over her broken relationship, but it did happen. Watching her coach go made her light a fire inside. And better to stop thinking and just surf the wave.

She finished her warm ups and went to get dressed. She put her headphones on and tried to keep the feeling going. The taste of the podium was there. The day would end with her in first place. Hermione stayed by her side when she came back. Her presence made Fleur feel even more powerful. The partnership that the sport wouldn’t even bat an eye. Riding the wave of her emotions, ice warm up and entrance went by fast, and it was already Fleur Delacour time on the ice. The French took her jacket out and skate guards, giving them to her coach.

“I would say good luck. But you don’t need it.” Hermione whispered for only them to hear. Cameras took pictures, Fleur’s anxiety couldn’t care less. She held her coach hands and squeezed them tight. “I’ll make you proud.”

Delacour choose this short program because she needed to talk about her loneliness after her breakup. It is a story that she can tell. The audience can feel and understand her, connect. It’s sad, lonely, depressing. Spending so much time of your life, putting your confidence on someone that would say you were never worth anything. A triple axel is nothing, she can’t even listen to the audience shouting and clapping when she lands it. She is skating to cleanse her soul in order to give space to something new. Fleur might have been lonely, but she isn’t anymore. There are so many people that want to see her thrive and be happy.

The program barely started and it was over. There was no turning back from it, she showed the world that they need to know her name. Her eyes searched for Hermione outside the rink, whose smile was so big it was probably hurting. Fleur skated towards her and threw herself into her arms. Fleur Delacour felt free to dance. And she had people that were there to hold her.

“I’m so proud of you” Hermione whispered in her ear after giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.” Hermione laughed.

“Yesterday I thought I had messed up forever.” They both let go of the hug, journalists still taking pictures. Fleur put her jacket and skate guards back on.

“As someone said to me once. I am accepting your apology, but I need you to be aware of the damage you made.” Hermione hugged her again, sniffing a little. As they sat down on the kiss and cry, they found each other hands to hold while waiting for the score.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what to say here anymore besides: Fleur finally got the hug she needed.  
> Reminder that Lonely by Billie Eillish is Fleur's short program.
> 
> Donate to BLM, #defundthepolice. Peace out.


	11. Hockey Stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the comments! They keep me coming back to this fic.
> 
> I'm testing writing each chapter as a unique scene, to see if I can make my writing flow better.  
> So, relatively short chapter. Hope you enjoy!

The new cup of coffee that she held was slightly burning her hand, but Hermione couldn’t take her eyes of the monitor in the waiting area. It showed the last battery of skaters for the day, and Fleur was still sitting in the top places lounge. The coach moved her fingers on top of a folded resignation letter inside her left pocket. Funny way to make use of hotel notepads for the first time.

When she finished writing it, around two in the morning, her mind was clear. For Hermione there was no way forward after this competition. She might have to accompany Fleur to France but she won’t do it as a coach. She couldn’t.

A young Canadian skater just got her final score, third place. The monitor showed Fleur and another Russian skater receiving the young girl in the lounge and waving at the camera. Delacour in her French team jacket, perfect poise and with a huge smile on her face. Hermione’s gut turned and she took another gulp of her coffee to invite more suffering into her stomach. She felt like she deserved it, because she did everything wrong.

A very irrational version of herself was walking around since hearing Fleur wouldn’t perform the triple axel. Since she saw her full iteration of the short program, Hermione knew there was something sad and heartbroken in the skater’s closet, and deep inside she wanted to know who hurt Fleur.

The issue was that for Hermione Granger, this didn’t compute with her rational thinking. So, it was about convincing Fleur of jumping, as obviously it must have been a confidence fluke, every diva athlete goes through that. It became about Fleur giving up on her future, and not at all about Hermione wanting for Fleur to tell her, unprompted about her past and sufferings and ‘for fucks sake I can’t fucking believe myself’

Hermione took another big gulp of coffee. The last skater was up, Trusova. She would probably get a first place and bump Fleur to second, it was expected at this point. As her program started, Granger went back into her mind. ‘I was clearly lashing out to get Fleur’s attention. Like a teenager. I’ve never behaved like that in my entire life. I basically did a Ron.’ Whatever was the reason for her mind to get so irrational, needed to be killed. She wasn’t ready to be a coach if something so minor took her for a spin and almost her skater’s career. Hermione was aware of the damage she made, and it was important to make amends.

The sound of clapping brought her attention to the monitor again. If Granger had paid attention to the presentation, instead of drowning in her emotional sorrows, she wouldn’t have been surprised when the score was one point lower than her skater’s. Fleur Delacour finished the day in first place. None of her predictions counted with that. The coach couldn’t contain the smile in her face and the relief in her heart. Her actions could have sabotaged a great skater, impressive jump or not. She was happy they didn’t.

The tv showed the top score podium girls congratulating each other and walking out, which made Hermione realize she needed to meet with her athlete. As she started walking, she felt the lack of sleep all over her body. The arena being cold didn’t help, all she wanted was to sleep and wake up in her bed in Hogsmeade, maybe in her parent’s house in Edinburgh where she could lick her wounds.

“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised Ms. Skeeter, I’ve trained for this.”

Fleur’s voice was loud. It wasn’t a happy loud, it was ‘get away from me before I slap you to the moon’ loud. She was being interviewed by a small woman with so much blonde hair held up by spray, that Hermione wondered if there was something else holding it up. Coming closer to them and stopping around Fleur’s peripheral view, she could finally see the journalist’s face, with so much colorful makeup that a toddler could have done it better. Tacky was not even the correct word someone would use to define Rita Skeeter, because it would be far from what she really is.

“You can’t say that you were expected to finish in first place today Ms. Delacour.” Hermione shivered when she heard the voice. It was metallic with a hint of known superiority. Granger has heard that kind, too many times in her life. Fleur rolled her shoulders back and managed to occupy even more space in front of the so called journalist.

“I might not have been expected by other people. But me and my coaches were counting on it.”

“Oh yes, your new coaches in Scotland. A very secluded place, where _secret trainings_ happen.” Did she just insinuate what Hermione think she did? Doping? The coach stiffed, trying to not jump into the woman’s jugular. Fleur glanced at her coach, with a poker face for many, but a hint of murderous intent for whom knew where to look. The red shoulder pads of the French uniform went up and down slowly. Breathe in, breathe out, no lashing out.

“Ms. Skeeter. I understand that my choices, and of Viktor Krum, might have been unorthodox. But I can assure you that we train the same way as everyone else in this sport. Waking up early, doing the work and leaving everything on the ice.” Skeeter opened her mouth for another remark, as she didn’t seem to be able to formulate questions, but Fleur cut her off. “I do have to go now and rest for the free skate tomorrow. Hope to see you at the press section after medal awards.”

Fleur gave Skeeter the trademark smile that fills her sponsorship list, and turned to face Hermione, gesturing for them to walk along the Arena corridor. Walking side by side, Granger turned her head to the side, trying to glance back. Only to see the weird journalist starring back at them with a grim smile. Hermione ignored the shivers down her spine and kept walking alongside Fleur.

Delacour held her hands on her back, keeping her usual poise. Some pieces of hair had managed to leave the tight hold of the bun, falling on the side of her face. There’s a relaxing aura coming from Fleur that is permeating Hermione as they walk. “What’s your assessment on my short program?” She spoke on a soft voice, only for her coach to hear.

“I think you pulled off all your jumps.”

“But?” Fleur smirked in her coach’s direction as Hermione eye-rolled.

“You can’t wait for me to assess it after the competition?”

“I don’t mind. To be honest, I just wanted to talk to you, but you seemed lost in your own mental machinations for idle chat.” They had reached the exit as their van was ready to pick them up. Hermione stopped walking and Fleur turned to her a couple steps ahead. The Fall afternoon sun was already too low for everyone’s taste, a sign that winter was right around the corner. But that same sun was shining onto Delacour’s face creating contrast between her silver hair and her light blue makeup. The backlight allowed us to see her blue costume ruffled inside her white France jacket. Shoved in a manner that coaches would freak, inside her black sweatpants. The warm smile adorned her face, creating wrinkles underneath her eyes. In a few years Hermione would describe it as the most beautiful mess she has ever seen.

Right now, her rational mind finally caught up to her heart as fast as a hockey stop. The same way that her left hand held the resignation letter once more.


	12. Footwork

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mainly a Harry chapter. The gang watching the Free Skate is at the end of the chapter if you want to see how Bi Ginny is.

The television light was illuminating the faces of its watchers. The sunset had happened a while ago and no one bothered to turn on the lights, too focused on the presentations on the screen. The coaches taught their adults classes that Saturday morning and decided to give themselves a “rest” day in order to watch all the Free Skates from Skate Canada. “We didn’t get to watch the short program live yesterday, we own in to Hermione!” Ginny insisted as she shooed everyone outside of the rink. Harry refrained from telling her that they didn’t watch Krum’s live also, but a voice in his head remembered him that Ginny probably woke the week before up at 2am to do it.

The men’s Free Skate had just ended, with Yuzuru winning in “half home soil”, as Ron would define, which wasn’t surprising to anyone. Ginny was shoving huge amounts of popcorn into her mouth while scrolling down social media, body stretched on top of the living room rug. Neville, wanting to stay close to his pot of herbal tea, was managing kitchen snack duties, filling his skating partner’s popcorn bucket from time to time. Ron and Harry were sitting on the couch, focusing on the replays of jumps and movements. After a long deep sigh, the ginger boy rested his head on his hand and turned to his best friend.

“I wonder if one day we’ll be able to compete on the Grand Prix. Or if we’ll be too old for that.” Harry blinked, once, twice. ‘We’, Ron said. In his past day dreaming, the Weasley would never put himself on the same basket as Harry, as the latter insisted he didn’t want to be in professional competitions. At least, not after his parents died. It did sting a little, but Harry always brushed past it, because he couldn’t blame Ron for not guessing his thoughts.

Feeling surprised by the plural was a sign of ignored emotions, that Harry would have to uncover another time, because his silence was probably sending the wrong message. “Mione will make sure we’ll squeeze in. At least two seasons, for sure.” Ron smiled and looked at the tv again, advertising showing up in between blocks.

“She really would, wouldn’t she?” His dreamy expression turned bright, a small smile creeping in. “Maybe we can get into the next Olympics. If the rink had someone competing in the women’s category, we’d be in the team’s event!” Harry smiled at him and didn’t mention they also didn’t have anyone on pairs, but dreaming was important, and he was happy Ron was still able to do it so frequently.

“Knock, knock, is someone home?” came the voice of Luna from the unlocked door, followed by Ginny’s excited short-but-polite trademark scream. The youngest Weasley jumped to hug her friend, adding a little spin to the end. “Hi Ginny! What are you on?”

“Popcorn, chocolate and coffee! Plus, great shutdowns of people that don’t understand figure skating and like to hate on people.” The skater raised her phone to show some post that she has been following. Luna nodding with the same amount of enthusiasm, even though she had no clue what a technical and performance score meant. Neville coughed to get everyone’s attention.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we are out of popcorn and chips. Soon, chocolate. And by the time” He checked his watch for accuracy in his statement, while still holding his cup of tea on his right hand. The front cover of every parent’s dreams of politeness “we should head out to grab dinner. If we want to be back in time for the women’s free.”

Luna asked what were their dinner plans the same time Ronald shouted ‘pizza!’.

“We’re not having pizza. I feel that McGonagall would astral project into this apartment to judge us.” Harry shut down the glint in his colleague’s eyes and got up from the sofa. “There’s a bowl place that just opened, right by the corner store. We solve two problems at once.” Ron whined about needing more carbs and that he could ‘run it off later’ as the group grabbed their jackets and left the apartment. The moon was full on that windy Fall day, with clean sky and some stars. Being impressed by nature were perks of medium towns in the countryside.

Gazing at the stars, Harry noticed on his periphery vision that someone matched his walking pace. It didn’t take long to recognize the blonde locks that were free from her hat floating with the breeze. Luna’s presence was weird. Not a bad weird, just weirdly comfortable. When Ginny used to say that her friend floated instead of walking, it wasn’t far from the truth. Luna’s presence is light and consistent, making you wonder if she will vanish when you blink for too long.

“Is there a Fae on me?” Harry’s focus on her was broke by the question and he shook his head, trying to understand the question.

“No. At least I don’t think so.”

“Oh, you were starring. Thought might have something on my head. It does feel a little heavy. I will refrain from moving too much if it is the case though.” Harry laughed, ‘of course’.

“How was the lab today Luna?”

The girl, still trying to walk without moving her head that much, turned her body to her companion, walking sideways. Not looking bothered at all. “Lab was good. The interns are at it with the whispering gossip again. They really didn’t believe me when I said that it could affect our animal’s environment.”

“You could ask Neville to come around one day and have a conversation about it. You told me they respect him.”

“They thirst on him, it’s different. It’s all about the ‘carrying a woman while gliding on ice’ factor” Luna chuckled. Head stiff to avoid the hitchhiking Fae falling. “But it might help. I will try. How was your week? Any emotional improvement?”

A deep sigh came out of Potter. There was development, he told Hermione that he was going to therapy. Over the phone, miles away, when he knew his friend wouldn’t think too much about it. That counted right? “I told ‘Mione on Thursday” Shrugging his shoulders, more to pretend to himself it didn’t bother him at all. Not even a little bit. How hungry is he to have these gut chills?

“That’s great. Is she well?” Harry nodded and the subject dropped. The corner shop was just a block away now. But as they walked, he looked at the group at the front. Ginny was telling a story, to which Ron was reacting with stretched arms and laughter, Neville, always attentive nodded and smiled. Ron’s words of “we” echoed in his head again. ‘Why it felt like he wasn’t part of the we?’ That’s when a second voice fought back.

“Hey Luna?”

“Yes?” Her big blue eyes, attentive, waiting to listen to him.

“Ron made a comment earlier about us going to a Grand Prix one day. It felt, nice. So, to speak.” Harry stopped in his tracks to gather his thoughts “Why do I still feel lonely even when I hear someone including me?” Luna smiled proudly at him.

“That’s a great question Harry. It could be a lot of things, I can only guess. But that’s a great start point in figuring out your feelings and your invasive thoughts.”

“I liked when Ron said that, but then my mind went to him not really meaning it. Because I think of the moving out situation and many others where he just blabbed that he couldn’t be around me. But at the same time, he apologized and I know he is trying to be better, but there is this feeling inside of me that wants more. More certainty, less doubt that he will storm out of our friendship. I’m a very lonely person Luna. I’m surrounded by people that care about me and I don’t want them to leave, but I don’t want to make them stay because I’m broken.” Harry’s word vomit didn’t faze Luna. She only held his arm and moved it up and down, centering him in that moment.

“You’re really brave Harry Potter” The boy huffed ironically. Him, brave, yeah. Looking from the outside, an orphan boy moving forward constantly, just hoping he will be left alone eventually. That those feelings, that the pressure of ‘being well’ would one day be magically gone when he woke up. Easy to be brave when it’s mistaken by running away. “You are. Don’t listen to those voices. The Fae told me they are not nice.”

Luna got closer to him, in order to lower her voice and still be heard. “You’re brave because you’re looking for a way to heal. And thinking, and talking about those negative feelings, puts you in a very vulnerable place. It’s worse than the Malfoys horses’ shit, not gonna lie.” That got Harry laughing. Victory. “But, it’s a process. You’ll leave better than when you started. This now is just a bump in the road.”

The wind hit the side of their faces harder. Nature agreeing with Luna and giving Harry a chilly wake up call from his anxiety. “Ahm, guys?” Ron was a few steps away waiting for this moment in order to interfere. In a different world Harry would have jumped back, getting as much distance as possible. In this one, he only cared about the grounding feeling he had close to him.

“Ginny and Neville went to get the bowls. I’m going to the store to get the snacks.” The ginger boy pointed to the place across the street. “Do you want anything?” Harry felt Luna nudging him with her elbow which only made Ron look more uncomfortable.

“You know, I’m tagging along with you Ron, if that’s okay? Want to chat about some things.”

“Yeah, of course matte.” Weasley’s eyes kept moving between the both of them and signs of confusion just got stronger.

“I’m going to help with the bowls.” And in a blink Luna was already inside the restaurant talking to Ginny and the two skaters were perusing the isles of the corner store. Making the common mistake of believing they don’t need a basket, both of them had their hands full while looking for chocolate. There wasn’t much conversation. The fact that Harry opened up saying ‘I want to talk’ made things more complicated than he wanted because Ron is probably expecting a fallout of some kind. Between him, Ron and Hermione social skills points might be able to average at zero instead of negative.

“Could you grab that Cadbury over there?” Harry pointed with his face where they were and Ron crouched to hold the milk bar between his ring and little finger. “Also, I don’t want you to move out” Ron almost fell coming back up with the chocolate but managed to keep his base. Bless older brothers trying to trip you constantly.

“I…wasn’t going to move out. Not anymore.”

“I know. Because you stopped talking about it.” Ron was focused on him. Harry wondered if he was paying attention or just shocked. ‘No. No time for second thoughts.’ “I’ve been going to therapy. Luna, suggested me. And I’ve already babbled to her not even ten minutes ago, so I want to keep this short. You’re my family Ron, and I need more care and attention from you. Which means, I will be talking about how I feel from now on. As I am working on this” Potter rocked his popcorn-chips baby up and down to symbolize himself.

One second of no reaction. Two. Three. Ronald Weasley dropped the stuff in his hands on the floor and hugged Harry. When was the last time they did this? When the Potter’s died probably. Not even when Hermione and him broke up they had hugged, as much as Ron wanted one. He just never asked. That was so silly, why wouldn’t he hug his brother?

When Ron pulled back from the embrace his face was full on red “I thought” He stopped to swallow tears that wanted to come out “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be the one crying here. I thought that by being quiet and getting myself out of your life was better than just being a constant bummer to you and ‘Mione”

“Ron, fuck.” Harry didn’t care also and dropped the stuff he was holding on the floor. “You have issues too. And the problem is that I expected you to be there when I needed, but I never told you. I just thought about it.”

“Which I should have.” The ginger gesticulated angry at himself.

“Yes. But my point is. We make mistakes. And you’re very important for me. What you told me at the house a while ago, about us going to a Grand Prix. That meant so much to me, because I want to do things with you. But we keep headbutting, you shout I get angry and then we give up and start talking again. This needs to stop.”

“You’re right. I’m sor…”

“Don’t” Harry raised his hand to stop another apology. “I know you’re sorry. We need to start working on it being reality for our friendship. We need to move on.” Ron nodded.

“You make a great couple. Now, if I give you a 5% discount would you stop discussing your relationship in the middle of my sweet aisle?” The owner was standing by the ‘sour patch kids’ bags. For how long, we will never know. Harry and Ron grabbed their snacks and left in a hurry, to only burst in laughter on the sidewalk. They couldn’t stop, the second one managed to control their diaphragm, they would lock eyes and start laughing again. It was easy. A feeling very much missed.

“What is wrong with them?” Ginny asked when Harry dropped to the floor, crying and holding his stomach. “Hey! Get up! We’re going to miss Hermione!” the younger Weasley nudged her former skating partner with her feet. Back at the apartment, Ron was still red as a tomato, but nor him or Harry talked about what made them laugh that much. Only that ‘They would be coming back for the discount.’

Free skate order was determined by the short program scores, they explained to Luna. The last one would go first and the first one would go last. “It’s like gymnastics then?” She asked the group. It meant that better you went on the first day, you can adjust your strategy after seeing everyone perform and receive their scores. On a first round Grand Prix event like this, a lot of skaters would use the opportunity to not skate their best Free program as they haven’t peaked in the season yet.

“What does ‘peaked’ mean?” Luna asked as she ate her Cadbury bar.

“It’s when you’re best accustomed to your program. Not missing jumps or choreography tempo. You should try to peak on your second Grand Prix or if you’re cocky enough, only during Finals. Because you would know your opponents point average and you can adjust your program accordingly” Ginny answered from the kitchen as she waited for her new batch of popcorn to be ready.

“Or if you’re not the best at doing changes, just have a consistent score. Changing choreography every year does that to you.” Harry increased the volume of the TV when Trusova finished her program. It meant Fleur would be next. The kiss and cry cam showed her total score and all the skaters in the room whistled.

“High.”

“Damn quads”

“The Russian water man”

The stadium went crazy watching Trusova take the first place on the score. Commentators were going back and forth talking about her quads and the future for the sport as ‘she is still so young!’. Cameras turned to the side of the rink where Fleur and Hermione were. Fleur with the usual white French jacket on top of her uniform and Hermione wearing a black long coat with a red and gold scarf. Their pristine posture and determined look made them look powerful, as if they were doing that for years and this was another weekend for them. The skaters in the room couldn’t pretend they didn’t all sight in admiration for their friend. As they talked, Fleur took her jacket out, without breaking eye contact with her coach, and handed to Hermione.

“Delacour, that’s a thirst trap!” Ginevra shouted and got up on the couch. Phone already out, typing like a maniac while still looking at the TV. “Anyone knew she was wearing that for the program? No one?” All the boys ignored the girl losing her mind as they were also being affected by the so called ‘thirst trap.’ Different from her short program blue dress, Fleur was wearing black pants and a white social shirt with short sleeves, held in place by black suspenders. It was very much a men’s costume, made slightly feminine by the pony tail and colorful make-up.

One of the commentators was babbling away, confused and worried for Delacour’s presentation scores, as it was “unusual” for a woman to present like this. Her colleague said it fits with her music choice. And when the Freddie Mercury’s voice came out of the speakers the crowd cheered. “That’s very bold of her” Luna mentioned to Ginny.

“It is, isn’t it? I wonder if Hermione will survive this. I’m not sure if _my_ straight card is still intact.” Luna giggled. As if Ginny Weasley was ever straight in her life.

It was an exciting Free Skate. Every program in history that used Queen was exciting, and the _Show Must Go On_ wasn’t going to be an exception. Fleur’s choreography mimicked Freddie’s iconic presentation movements and added two triple axels in the second part, sending her technical score up. It wasn’t perfectly executed like her short program, the commentator pointed out when she came out of the ice to talk with Hermione while standing very close to each other.

“It’s nice to see them being friends after all that fight” Neville mentioned in between tea sips and discussing if Fleur’s combo of lutz and toe loop combination deserved that low of a score. Luna and Ginny just eye rolled and sighted. Friends, yeah. Ginny remembers a day she met with Luna after a double schedule with Fleur and Hermione. She had to excuse herself early, because the amount of awkward sexual tension was just making her want to shout ‘Get a room. Even the gym, just do it soon’. They just couldn’t see it themselves because, well. ‘It’s Hermione we’re talking about. It will probably hit her like a train one day and send her on a spiral.’

“It’s so hard to be the only socially capable of the team” Luna tapped her friend’s leg in solidarity.

At the Kiss and Cry Fleur was excited, Hermione serious trying to keep herself composed while waiting for the score. When it came, the coach expression started going a little sour but the French skater grabbed her in a hug and gave a kiss on the cheek. The axels weren’t strong enough against the quads, but they kept Fleur in second place. The rookie coach and the almost retired skater just started their season with a bang.

“Can we put another bet on the board that Hermione will come back trying to figure out how to get first in France when she doesn’t need to?” Ron raised his hand and wrote in the air.

“We can only bet on things that are not obvious Ronald” His sister hitting him in the head with a pillow. “But I know something that we can do.” Luna side glanced at her friend. ‘You’re not gonna do what I think you’re doing right?’

‘Of course not, I’m a bitch but not _that_ bitch’ Ginny retorted with her eyes.

“What if we bet that Hermione will come back less certain about what she wants to do?” Harry hummed, Ron looked as if she just offended their whole family including herself. Neville kept sipping his tea, he never betted on anyone in the rink really.

“You just saw that she got a silver medal, right?”

“Ron. She has a point.” Harry held his friend’s shoulder while also looking deep in thought. “Ok, I’ll bite. But I’ll bet against you. I think she will think she won’t be certain, but she actually knows what she wants.”

“That is so complicated matte.”

“Done” Ginny and Harry shook hands. They were always on a different frequency than the others, but while the Weasley tended for expecting the chaotic result, Potter expected the reasonable to win. Made for interesting bets. Ron just shrugged, giving up on understanding anything on that bet. He knew Hermione, there was no uncertain bone in her body. Both would end up losing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG.  
> I've been adding to this chapter when I had the chance but work has been busy. And it's really hard to stare at a screen to write after you spent a day doing just that. (And again the creator of this world making me think if I should keep writing or not. These are difficult times)
> 
> Next chapter is Hermione again. I already started writing so I hope *crosses fingers* that work gives me a break.
> 
> Thanks for reading, stay safe, wear a mask if you can, remember to drink water and take a nap!


	13. Pair Dancing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters don't belong to me. Because if they did, it would end up being a quidditch story.

“I want to resign Minerva” Hermione said to her reflection in the mirror. Not feeling the certainty in those words, she repeated another option “I would like to deliver my letter of resignation and I won’t be convinced otherwise” Her reflection didn’t answer. The coach grunted and let herself fall backwards on the bed, hiding her face between the hands. She was certain she needed to quit, there was no reason not to. Why it felt so difficult to do it?

Her meeting with McGonagall was next morning over Skype. ‘I’d like to talk about Fleur’s first competition’ Yes, Delacour’s short program is in great shape, she is the queen of sad feels, not much of good one’s as her free skate was robotic and lacking some life. Maybe Hermione could help her get some.

“Bloody Hell! Head out of the gutter!” Granger got up from the bed and went to aggressively undo her luggage. She was so well organized that the task didn’t take long, so she started her washer and made dinner. Vacuumed her living room while her dryer was still going and again found herself huffing in anger without a distraction. Scrolling down social media was it then. ‘Come melt my brain sweet, sweet, technology.’

She opened Instagram. The number of followers that she got because of the competition was even worse than when Fleur tagged her on things a couple of months ago. And talking about tagging, Ginny did her rounds. There was not only mentions and tags, direct messages also. Since the Free Skate, the younger Weasley was sending Hermione every video and picture she found of her and Fleur. It would have been really nice if that didn’t make Granger’s heart flutter. Because that was wrong, of course.

Against her best decisions, she scrolled through the messages Ginny sent, clicking and looking at some of them. What Granger couldn’t deny was the warm feeling when she looked at all of those moments. Maybe looking at those pictures would satisfy her crush and it would let go? That idea went down the drain when she saw a video of them at the Kiss and Cry after the Free Skate.

Hermione remembers that moment too well. She was nervous about Fleur not being able to score in order to stay in second. Her performance wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good. Jokes aside, Fleur didn’t manage to show the felling of ‘moving on’ that her program required and it was obvious. During the whole program, Hermione couldn’t shake the fear that she didn’t manage to instruct her skater properly because her subconscious kept bringing her infatuation.

Fleur was sure she would get the score she needed. Skaters usually knew exactly how much they would get - if the judges were fair - as soon as they finished. That was a skill Hermione did not possess as she never entered competitions. So, when the score was about to come out, the coach was stressed and frustrated, so Fleur’s kiss got her by surprise. Watching the video, she could see the moment she smiled. The users commenting about the ‘relief moment’ in Hermione’s face were so wrong. Her brain did not process the score until later, it was too busy paying attention to Fleur Isabelle Delacour kissing her cheek.

Granger’s expression was of pure and silly happiness. Seeing it in loop made her stomach twirl and double lutz all over again. She felt dirty for enjoying something like this. Fleur was her athlete. The position of power that Hermione has in relation to her doesn’t allow those kinds of feelings. And they already proved to be dangerous if left unchecked. “But I wasn’t aware of them when I went ballistic. It’s easier to control something when you know where it’s coming from” Hermione pondered to herself.

She needed time to think and there was no way she was getting it inside her apartment. Hermione grabbed her skate’s bag and jacket, walking towards the rink. It was past closing time and not even Filch would be there to bother. She only turned on the middle rink lights to avoid being seen from the outside and having to explain herself to any security walking by. Hermione used her cellphone to play her skating playlist, echoing in the empty arena. When was the last time she skated to these songs? She was still a freshman at Uni, for sure.

“Okay, what would I coach myself to do?” Hermione then went through the motions. Stretch off the ice first, quick jumping jacks and then put on skates. She wasn’t a daily skater anymore, it doesn’t matter how much she showed motions to kids, she just wasn’t. Quick laps around the rink. ‘What if I try to go as fast as I can?’ Granger smirked. She would never let her students do it, but she was the only adult here and she can eat ice cream for dinner.

Positioning herself on a hockey line, Hermione pretended to get ready for an imaginary whistle that went off in her head. Off she goes, crowd shouting for her name, ‘Speed skating for Great Britain, Hermione Granger!’. Gaining speed on her second curve she tried to increase it even more on the third. This would be the moment her conscience would tell her to stop before she broke something, but she needed to let loose. Maybe if she breaks an arm she could get away from her coaching duties. Third curve done masterfully, on to the fourth and two complete laps on the rink. There was an early Artic Monkeys song playing on her phone, Hermione felt like the weight she carried left her for the first time. Taken by the ice.

Second lap completed, on to the third and last. ‘Great Britain coming for the gold.’ Hermione narrated on her head when she finished the fifth curve. Looking at the straight line ahead of her, off to the side she saw a dot of white in the middle of the dark entrance hallway. The quick glance was enough for her to lose focus and twist her body just enough to lose balance, falling sideways and skidding through the ice. The pain of her body hitting the barrier at the end of the rink meant that she would be purple tomorrow.

Hermione got up slowly. Her habit of coming to the rink with gloves and padded leggings were a blessing right now, but she needed to take her skates off to know if her ankles were still intact after the impact.

“Hermione!” Oh, great. Thought the coach as she saw Fleur walking on the ice towards her. “I’m so sorry I scared you! Are you okay?” There was no break for Hermione Granger was it?

“I’m okay. Just help me get up. I need to take off my skates.” Delacour held her arms and helped the coach get up and push her gently towards the entrance. Once outside Hermione sat down on the lower bleachers and started untying her skates when Fleur shooed her off and did the work. Trying to avoid the rush of blood that came to her face, Hermione tried to start a conversation the best way she can. Being blunt and direct.

“What are you doing here Fleur?”

“Just couldn’t get away from you I guess” The French answered with a jokingly smirk. This girl will be the end of Granger. “I actually was on my balcony and saw you leaving the building with your skates. I couldn’t sleep so I guessed that was the same with you, so I just invited myself to your secret skating hour. Sorry.” She said apologetic and looking a little awkward, focusing again in untying the second skate.

Granger moved her free feet sideways, up and down to confirm nothing was broken or about to be swollen. It actually seemed in better shape than her leg would be. With Fleur taking off the second skate, she repeated the motions and confirmed that both her ankles and feet came out of it unscathed. An easy way out of her coaching job was not an option then. Fleur was waiting for some reaction with a worried expression. Hermione couldn’t refrain from wanting to soothe the worry.

“Fleur, you need to stop making me fall. This is the second time already.” Ignoring the use of the word fall in the phrase. Be casual, there’s no second intention there.

Laughing and easing her worry, Fleur sat by the coach and absently minded started playing with her own fingers. “I do help you get up at least.”

Delacour was nervous and Hermione couldn’t figure out why. The French woman wouldn’t look her in the eyes, paying attention only to the rink. It was as if she had converted to the person before the competition. Did something happen again? And as if reading Granger’s mind Fleur broke off her worried expression bringing back the confident pose. Two people in one.

“Do you think you can still skate? I can carry you home if you need to” Hermione eye-rolled at the jab.

“I’m still capable of skating, not because of you and your ghostly hair.”

“Well, this ghostly hair wants to go haunt the rink. If you would like to join me?” Fleur grabbed her skate bag and started to take her trainer’s off.

“No jumping.” The coach in Hermione was faster than she expected and Fleur looked amused. “You are still on your rest day. You shouldn’t be jumping after competing this weekend.”

“I know. I’ve been competing for ten years mom.” And Fleur went back to meticulously tie her skate’s laces. The process of getting them in the proper place is almost meditative, the equal number of curves and repetition of the proper place to tie twice or even three times. Hermione never cared that much after she stopped training, and she knew Ron and Harry also had their routines for lacing. But they never felt like a preparation for something bigger, like this moment.

Fleur was already rounding the rink when Hermione finished putting her skates back on. To be honest she shouldn’t be skating again, but this day hasn’t been ordinary so better go with what it’s giving her. ‘Just keep yourself in check and everything will be fine.’ They skated avoiding each other for a few minutes. Fleur focused on doing backward to forward skating. Hermione just went around skating, trying to stay as far as possible from her companion. It felt ridiculous. There was a huge Zamboni in the room and they were skating around it.

Suddenly the pace changed when Hermione’s phone started playing Clair de Lune. To understand the emotions that went through both of them, think about Wonderwall or Nirvana for guitar players. Everyone plays them and if your first reaction isn’t to leave the room or start making fun, then you haven’t met a lot of basic guitar players yet. Delacour and Granger have met a lot of basic figure skaters, and elite figure skaters and honestly, they also danced to that song once in their lives.

Hermione went red in the face listening to it, Fleur went the opposite way by getting into the ridiculous and twirling around as if she was crying. The French skater than dramatically spread eagled towards Granger and grabbed her hands, taking her for a twirl. “Get into the character Coach” She whispered as they both glided around as if they were ice dancing partners.

It was too funny. None of them knew how to be synchronized, so Fleur made dramatic crying faces while trying to catch up to a Hermione pretending she was letting the other go. They would hug and separate, Fleur even tried holding her partner for a few seconds in the air but they only lost balance and fell on their butts. At the very end of the song Hermione got up and did a knee slide, which resulted in a round of applause from Fleur.

Looking back at her audience, Hermione got her footing once again. She just had so much fun and the guilt feeling came back. How in a few seconds she had succumbed completely to Fleur. There was no way the coach could pretend she didn’t have a crush going forward. Her walls don’t exist as soon as the blonde woman was in the room.

“That was so much fun. Thank you.” Fleur said in a sad tone. “But I do need to say that I didn’t follow you here to only skate”

‘Oh no. No. No. No.’ Hermione’s mind went into overdrive. There was no way Fleur was going to reciprocate these feelings and make everything an even more complicated mess, would she? Maybe that was only wishful thinking on part of Hermione’s but the fear was there. The French woman continued.

“I wanted to talk to you about why I didn’t want to do the triple axel. And why I didn’t tell you, when clearly everyone else knew why.” Hermione had no answer to that. Still waiting. Fleur started focusing on the walls of the arena. “I was afraid. You see. I’m gay” Delacour looked panicked, Hermione looked panicked.

“No, that’s not how I wanted to say it. Yes, I am gay. But I was in a relationship. With a woman, her name is Louise.” The blonde was flailing her arms now “She told me I needed to try the jump on the finals, when I told her I wasn’t ready. That’s why I got hurt, training the axel. Even before the competition.”

“She sounds like an irresponsible person.” Hermione interjected without thinking.

“I would say a bitch, but irresponsible works.” Fleur agreed nodding vigorously “When I got hurt, I started talking about retiring, and long story short, she broke up with me because I was a loser. She said I spent all this time training to never even be champion. That she betted on the wrong horse.” Delacour was now flailing her arms _plus_ sliding back and forth on her skates.

“And I know I’m making her sound way worse than she is, but honestly, we fought and. She’s a journalist by the way. She threatened to out me if I ever came close to her. And I’ve just been afraid of getting any attention to me since then. Because if she was crazy enough to say that, she could do it. She could. And then my career could be over, in an instant.”

Hermione wanted to scream. Not at Fleur, at this Louise. How come a human being can be that toxic? That disgusting? Wait, Journalist Louise? She got an interview request from her a few months back and McGonagall refused. Everything made so much sense now. If that happened at the Finals it was just a few months back. The coach was dealing with an emotionally abused person and she behaved the way she did. Way to go Granger.

“Ok.” Hermione said with a serious face that made Delacour focus on her again and stop gliding in place “I have a baseball bat at home, we’ll do this America style.” Fleur’s eyes widened up to the size of a puck and Granger managed to hold her expression for almost five seconds when she cracked and laughed. Releasing her breath, Fleur also laughed back at her, even if weakly.

“Merci. I needed that.”

“De rien.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you. I was just afraid of you thinking I was weak. Not wanting to jump because of someone.”

“Hey. There’s nothing weak about that. And I was wrong, you know that. I ended up doing what your ex did. I’m really sorry. And I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to finish the season without me around.”

‘Smooth Hermione. You let your wishful thinking get the best of you again’ She thought as she waited for an answer from Fleur.

“No. Quite the contrary. You did pressure me, yes. But you were the one that got me ready, that got me where I needed to be. You believe in me first and winning after. You wouldn’t tell me to do it if you weren’t certain with all your soul that I couldn’t land it. And I know you’ve been kicking yourself over it this weekend. What I’m trying to say is, that I need you in order to finish this season.”

Hermione’s heart got caught on her throat. It was beating so fast and loud she wondered if Fleur could hear it. ‘I need you’. It’s not a love confession, but a confession nevertheless. How could Granger quit knowing that it would break Fleur more? This is not what she planned for. Nothing of this was in her season schedule! But with those blue eyes looking at her with anticipation after opening up, she felt like she could do it.

“We’ll finish this season together” Were the only words she managed to think of at the time. In a couple of years Hermione Granger would be smiling saying that it would end up being foreshadowing. Right now, it felt like a sacrifice worth making. And she would need to make some rules for herself to survive it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My notes for this chapter included: 'I can't get rid of Fleur Delacour omg, the FAE HATE ME' and 'Fleur needs her emotional support Granger'
> 
> Hope you're liking it! I know it doesn't have that much angst, but with the state of the world I don't want to bring more suffering into existence.


	14. Of Bets and Bingo

**“** Hey, pssssssst” Harry stopped his stretching to see Ginny trying to hide herself behind the gym door. The redhead completely ignored that half of the door is glass and he could see her skate bag dangling on the other side.

‘What?’ Potter mouthed.

“Is Hermione in there?” The Weasley also had no clue that whispering made no sense if you’re doing it loudly.

“No, why?” The gym door opened abruptly, as soon as he gave the other skater an answer. Ginny striding inside with the panic of an ostrich.

“Does anyone have an extra pair of gloves by any chance?” Harry fell on the floor and tried to casually pretend the door didn’t give him a heart attack. Ron and Fleur, who were on the other side of the room using the machines, looked at her without a hint of scare. The ‘having siblings lifestyle’ did prepare you for such things.

“Did you rip your gloves again? Mom is not buying you a decent pair this time.” It would be easier to take him seriously if he wasn’t rolling his legs at the moment. You can’t focus on whatever someone has to say when they look like a plastered fish on top of a foam roll, going up and down.

“No Ronald. I let one of the juniors borrow it earlier and she went home with it. Me and Nev have a slot in half an hour and we’re doing the complete long program today. Please, someone save my hands”

“I have an extra one in my car. Just grab the keys inside my bag. Left side pocket” Fleur pointed to her bag without stopping her running pace on the treadmill.

“Thank you so much! I owe you one.” Ginny ran to the bag and left the gym skipping.

* * *

**Gryffindor Team & Coaching Staff (Watch the language!)**

_ Hermione Granger on Wednesday 20:03 _

Hello everyone! After reconvening with all the athletes today, it seems there was a detour from the plan for the season. In order to get back on track I have created a new gym and conditioning schedule for the next two weeks.

Attachment – GT – recoup from Skate Canada

_ Hermione Granger on Wednesday 20:11 _

Would like to ratify that this training is not optional :)

**Gryffindor Team – The Ones Left Behind**

_ Harry P. on Wednesday 21:34 _

The Grand Prix changed her.

* * *

Neville was actually a morning person. Different from his colleagues that had to learn to be one, he would have woken up to be at the lab at five either way. It was just a matter of calling in a favour from Luna to get her to do his morning shift for the next two weeks and voila! Ready for conditioning and morning fixer routine with coach.

Entering the rink that it hit him. He didn’t go to campus. He didn’t stop at the café to grab his breakfast. His stomach grumbled in agreement. The Longbottom bad luck curse keeps following him. Annoying really. At least he knows it was already been used for the day, so Ginny wouldn’t fall today.

“Good Morning Mr. Longbottom.” Fleur Delacour floated into the rink holding a coffee tray in her right hand and a long box in her left. “Could I offer you some scones?”

* * *

**Gryffindor Team**

_ Nev on Thursday 9:15 _

Hey @FDelacour thank you for the snacks this morning. They saved us!

_ DancingQueen on Thursday 9:15 _

YES! I OWE YOU MY FIRST BORN.

_ King on Thursday 10:47 _

I wouldn’t give my first born, but we def owe you some food.

_ F. Delacour on Thursday 12:14 _

It was my pleasure. Now that everyone is on a 5am shift with me.

Good to have company.

_ Harry P. on Thursday 12:21 _

You mean “good to not have Hermione only on your ass” because, yes.

_ F. Delacour on Thursday 12:22 _

Hahaha

I don’t mind. I got used to her bossing me around already.

**Gryffindor Team & Coaching Staff (Watch the language!)**

_ F. Delacour on Saturday 02:48 _

Good luck @Vika! Pay attention to that Salchow entrance of yours. Don’t want to have that pretty jaw breaking the ice <3

Beautiful coat @Minerva. That burgundy looks great on you.

_ Hermione Granger on Saturday 02:49 _

You’re going to do great Viktor!

_ DancingQueen on Saturday 04:06 _

How did it end??? I didn’t wake up :((((((((((

_ Minerva on Friday 08:26 _

Mr. Krum finished in third place today.

* * *

“I can’t feel my legs man. I don’t think I’m gonna make it” Ron was upside down on their living room sofa, his walking limbs high up in the air.

“Where is the guy that wanted to go to worlds this year?” Harry put the chicken breast onto the hot pan and avoided the olive oil splashes that came with it. Ron released a deep and long sigh.

“I’m whining. This is for the best. Hermione knows what’s best.”

“Besides dealing with the student’s parents.” Harry flipped the breast and added a second one by its side. The sizzling of the meat hitting the pan didn’t manage to deafen the impact of the body rolling from the sofa to the ground. “You okay matte?”

Ron got up from the rug and stretched. He just groaned to answer his friend who was cooking and started putting on the table. Three sets of plates and cutlery. Ron sat again at the sofa. This time properly. “Wasn’t ‘Mione supposed to be here already?”

Harry glanced at his phone screen, ’20:10’. They were supposed to have dinner that Sunday. First because it was their day off, second ‘We haven’t had a proper trio hangout in months!’, which made Hermione delete her tape watching schedule for that evening.

And sensing that her ‘on time persona’ was about to be put in check, Hermione Granger came in without knocking, hair damp and – the horror – sweat pants. “I’m sorry. I went for a run and completely lost track of time.”

Harry and Ron waved it off. They talked about everything that did not include life on the rink and figure skating. Harry mentioned that Sirius would be dropping by at the end of November to deal with the Malfoy’s horses, which would keep him in town at least for Christmas.

“I’ve been thinking about moving back to my parents house.” Harry mentioned while stuffing his mouth with salad.

“Do you think you’re ready?” Hermione asked.

“Not now. No. But in the future. Ron would be taking one of the bedrooms and maybe Ginny would be interested in it once she graduates. Maybe you, if you want.” Hermione took Harry’s hand in hers and squeezed it affectionately “I think that if I plan to go back, I need to fill the spaces with more family you know.”

“I’d love to. But I’m not sure you guys want to live with your coach.”

“What you talking about? I could sneak in and change your scheduling all the time. It would be great” Ron gave his friend a friendly shoulder shove that made all of them start laughing.

* * *

**Gryffindor Team & Coaching Staff (Watch the language!)**

_ Minerva on Sunday 03:04 _

We will be arriving on Tuesday afternoon flight from London. I expect to see everyone’s programs on Wednesday and Thursday.

**Gryffindor Team – The Ones Left Behind**

_ Nev on Monday 13:09 _

Audio Message 0:05

_ King on Monday 13:12 _

Congrats man! Which line of the bingo that you managed to fill?

_ Nev on Monday 13:13 _

The most left one. It starts with “Filch hitting the Zamboni” and ending with “Hermione being soft”

_ Harry P. on Monday 13:14 _

@Nev that’s my bingo column. You just got a skate sharpening on me!

And she was REAL soft. Coach kinda knew what she was doing if I may say.

_ DancingQueen on Monday 14:04 _

@HarryP but are you SURE she knew what she was doing????

_ Harry P. on Monday 14:08 _

All I do is win :*

* * *

Ginny doesn’t like losing. That’s not new or even a surprise to anyone. She got better with the years; college also helped. Being far away from her family was good to not have a competition shadow looming all around. The fire of hating losing wasn’t put out though. Tamed, yes. Choked without air? Oh, never.

The bingos, the bets, the checklist of accomplishments as a figure skater with step by step planning, were powered by the furnace that was called ‘We won’t lose’. Everything else was just a matter of managing expectations. You can’t lose something that you don’t care about.

The issue this Tuesday morning, is that Ginevra Weasley mismanaged her expectations. She was so certain that she would win the bet against Harry, that when he messaged her the cutest picture in the entire universe, she almost collapsed from her chair midclass. Hermione was supposed to be avoiding Fleur like last week, not having coffee and croissants at Delacour’s balcony. It’s peak Fall for Christ sake, who stays in their balcony and enjoys a cuppa!?

“Everyone enjoys balconies in the Fall Gin, don’t be silly” The skater told herself as she threw her hair forward to tie it up again. “It’s before we get so deep in Winter and start hating each other because of the lack of sun.”

“What about lack of sun?” Ginny could see the black skates stopping in front of her. Delacour managed to even get a traditional men’s color for the season from her sponsor, incredible. ‘Wait’. The ice dancer couldn’t hold the mischievous smile that grew on her face. There was something that she could do to keep herself in track to not lose her bet.

“Oh, hi Fleur.” Ginny finished tying her hair and flipped it up in the most charming way that she could. “Was thinking about the horrible weather we’re going to get in a couple of months.”

“Even worse than the usual weather?” The French skater answered with a friendly smile. She seemed in a good mood. ‘Hermione must be around.’ The Weasley was trying to look for her friend usual hair and colorful jacket gliding by, but no sign of her. Ginny forced a laugh that worked only to make Fleur look at her suspiciously.

“But on another note. I did _enjoy_ your free skate costume.” Now, she got the reaction she wanted. Fleur’s eyes went big for half a second and were controlled back to its normal size. Ginny would have to clean her mouth with soap when she leaves the rink after that horrible flirt line though.

“It is a very different costume than the usual, for sure.” Fleur wasn’t going to bite easily. And no sign of Hermione yet. She needed to keep going.

“Brought some thirst to the competition, for sure.” Ginny is going to bleach her whole face as soon as she leaves the rink. Fleur’s face muscles made a herculean effort to not show any sign of reaction from that horrible pickup line. However, her eyes glanced somewhere behind the redhead and back to her. Hermione must have shown up. Ginny kept going, a little louder this time. “When I was watching the program, I kept thinking how did you manage to keep the shirt so, tight and curvy. It must be an interesting dressing process.”

She heard a junior skidding on the ice with very aggressive thumps to avoid falling. Fleur on the other hand opened an evil smile. To be honest, it was Ginny’s fault for not wearing a heavier jacket today, so when Delacour leaned closer and grazed her arm with her hand she wasn’t ready for the final blow.

“I can promise you the undressing is much faster. But only for selected few.”

The wink. It sent the Weasley to a Dante’s journey that ended in hell instead of heaven. At least Fleur had the pity of gliding away after that. Hermione didn’t have the same pity, as she came from the bleacher’s laughing as loudly as possible.

Ginny hates losing. So. Much.

* * *

**Gryffindor Team – The Ones Left Behind**

_ King on Wednesday 17:34 _

Just left Fleur and Mione at the airport. Is anyone already feeling their limbs and maybe self esteem?

_ DancingQueen on Wednesday 17:40 _

I don’t know what those are.

Btw, I’m thinking on bringing something to cheer Vika. Anyone in?

_ Harry P. on Wednesday 17:53 _

My slot with McGonagall is now at 18. After the beating, I’m free.

_ King on Wednesday 17:54 _

Voice Message 1:46

_ Nev on Wednesday 18:45 _

Just left the lab. Want a lift @HarryP?

_ DancingQueen on Wednesday 19:02 _

@King I hope Mione is right. I don’t know what will happen if none of them manages to get to the finals.

_ King on Wednesday 19:05_

@DancingQueen don’t worry. She’s usually right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A different format I wanted to try. Next chapter we're off to France!
> 
> A quick explanation on the stakes of Viktor getting third place in the cup of China.  
> With a silver and a bronze medal his chances to go to the Final becomes mathematical with a hint of luck. For each position you get a number of points, and it's very common to have tiebreakers between the skaters. They are usually based on top position achieved, which for Krum there is no 1st place, and highest points in a program, that he has a relatively good position.
> 
> I'm not going to go deep on points here, because that's a long topic, but Krum is on a fight for something bellow first and second slots, considering that in this story Chen and Hanyu are healthy and doing well.


	15. Les Française Sont Folle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics is French.
> 
> Hi! Hello! I come back bearing a very long chapter. I wrote it the last month little by little as I was working a lot, so it is a little clunky for my taste, but I do hope you enjoy!

“Allow yourself to feel the music” Was McGonagall’s advice after seeing Fleur’s free skate again. The choreography looked right, the movements were precise, the jumps carefully placed, but everything felt wrong. It was annoying, really. Hermione looked as if there is a puzzle to be cracked, but her older coach expression showed the obvious. Fleur just couldn’t connect with the music.

She only had herself to blame for deciding to perform Queen. Quietly, Fleur blames Krum for enabling her choices and the three glasses of wine that day, but if she wanted someone to stop her, Fleur would have called her mom. Tipsy Delacour was tired and wanted to forget the last months of her life and instead of getting a haircut she was going to skate a gay song, force herself out of her heartbreak and call it a day.

“Maybe I should have got a haircut instead.” Fleur whispered to herself.

“What?” The sound of luggage being rolled on stone floor stopped and Hermione turned to check on Fleur. The French skater waved her hands and laughed awkwardly towards her coach.

“Nothing. Just thinking out loud.” Granger raised an eyebrow but turned around to keep walking towards their hotel. ‘I have moved on from Louise, why can’t I just get the feeling from the song? Freddie, help a gay gal out.’ Focused on her inner monologue, Fleur didn’t even notice that they arrived at the reception and Hermione asked for her ID to check them in.

Waiting on the side of the reception balcony like a child waiting for her mom, Fleur looked at the city through the lobby glass walls. Grenoble didn’t change much since Fleur moved out to Paris to train at Madame Maxime’s rink. In the short car ride from the train station to the hotel, her emotional memory kicked in and she basked in a time before Louise, before Scotland. An easier time.

“ _Regarde la cité mais ne regarde pas votre soeur, dame blanche?”_ Of course. Fleur knew that voice, she was bound to have seen her sooner or later. Or extremely soon in this case.

“ _Allô, petite lutine. Maman ou Gabby qui a dit à quelle heure j’allais arrive?”_ Her sister couldn’t be called a gnome anymore, but Fleur wasn’t going to let it slide that she just called her a white ghost. A knot in her stomach made itself know when the older Delacour realized it has been a year since she last saw Gabrielle Delacour in person. She looked cool with her black cap and green Fall jacket. A messenger bag to the side, which meant she came directly from campus to wait for Fleur to eventually show up at the Hotel lobby. Instead of answering the gnome jab, Gabi hugged Fleur and the knot dissolved.

A cough came from behind them.

“Hey, sorry to bother you guys. I just need to give Fleur her room card.” Hermione was standing awkwardly a couple of feet away from them, as if trying to stay at the boarder of an invisible bubble. Gabi left the embrace and looked at her sister’s coach with a confused face until Fleur could see a spark and a smirk starting to appear.

With the quick wits of a sister that has been in this position too many times, Fleur embraced Gabi from behind, closing her sister’s mouth with her hand. “Hermione! Have I presented you to this disgraceful creature that has the same parents as me?” Gabi gave her right hand for Granger to shake and licked her sister’s to get it away from her face.

“Gabrielle Delacour. The improved daughter. A pleasure to meet the famous Hermione Granger.” Different from Fleur’s almost invisible French accent, Gabi’s English carried the heaviness of her mother language inflections. If they had been a little closer in age, they could have been mistaken for twins. The same family genetics of grey hair and blue eyes was there, also the high nose and side smile. Only that Gabi looked like she didn’t carry any weight on her shoulders in comparison to Fleur, whose stiff posture and demeanor created the stark difference between them.

One was being herself, the other presenting herself.

Hermione shook the hand and gave a little laugh watching the antics in front of her. “Nice to meet you. And I hope I’m not famous for the wrong reasons.”

“Mon dieu, never! Only good things. Our family follows Fleur career with enthusiasm. Though I think figure skating is boring. Ow! Porquoi Fleur?” The older Delacour slapped the back of her sister’s head with such speed that Hermione wasn’t even sure that it happened.

“Behave. All the competitors stay here remember? Don’t make me look bad.” Gabi stuck her tongue out to her sister and adjusted her cap back to its proper place on her head. “As much as I love you. Why you’re here?”

“Mom asked for me to watch the competition. They are at a wine market event this year so they couldn’t come. And I can’t see the short program because I have class on Friday, so I thought ‘hey, my lovely sister will be happy to have dinner and see me’.”

Fleur had seen her parents before moving to Scotland, spending a week filled with arguments and discussions with her mom. Apolline Delacour was mother, business partner and agent. Probably the smartest person in the household by miles and to anger Fleur more, she was understanding and wanted her daughters to be happy. Which meant that after the Louise threat, Apolline spent a good chunk of time trying to convince Fleur to come out publicly. ‘We can still support you if sponsors fall out.’

Of course they could support her, but that was the catch. Fleur managed to maintain herself after she finished her degree and could be skating full-time. Ice Galas and presentations during the Summer, Grand Prix competitions during the Fall and Winter season. That was one of the things Louise had drilled into her head, that she could only ‘be good if she was doing it by herself’. Looking back, Fleur knew that was bullshit, but something inside of her screamed that accepting this would let Louise win. What, she didn’t know.

Then Vika called her after a year of vanishing into a Bulgarian small town. ‘I’m going to Scotland to train. You should come with me.’ McGonagall’s prices weren’t pornographic and the living cost would be ridiculous if compared to Paris. New start, new place, affordable.

“I don’t want to intrude onto sister time. Don’t worry.” Fleur was brought back to reality by Hermione’s voice.

“You wouldn’t be intruding. God knows I prefer talking to anyone besides Fleur.” Granger was about to deny again when her stomach roared.

“It seems you will be joining us for dinner then.” Fleur moved to grab Hermione’s luggage “I’ll put the stuff in our rooms and then we can go.” As soon as the French skater entered the coach personal bubble Granger took a step back creating more space between them.

“It’s okay. I’ll go drop them off and you can have some time with Gabrielle.” Fleur thought that the movement was weird, but she wasn’t going to think twice about this. It’s late and they had a long day of training plus travelling. Fleur can’t blame Hermione for being jumpy. She watched her coach leave and turned to her sister once again.

The trademarked little sister grin of an incoming jab was plastered in Gabi’s face. “ _You look your age._ ”

“ _Thank you?”_ Fleur wasn’t sure what kind of trap she could be walking into.

“ _I’m serious. I can see the whole ice queen posture is still there, but you seem weirdly relaxed.”_ Fleur scoffed at her sister’s remark. Relaxed was the last thing she felt at the moment.

“ _I think you haven’t seen me in a while. That’s what’s making you think that.”_ Her sister released an annoyed breath and readjusted the strap of her bag.

 _“Fleur, for Christ sake. You’re wearing track pants, sneakers, and a t-shirt beneath your long jacket.”_ Gabi gesticulated up and down at her sister, as if that information could speak for itself. “ _And don’t even start with the fact that you travelled with a duffle bag?”_

Fleur looked at herself and she wasn’t getting whatever point her sister wanted to make. “ _This is trendy. And from my sponsor. I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”_ Gabi groaned and threw her hands up in the air.

“ _When was the last time that you travelled in comfy clothes Isabelle?”_ As realization hit her right in the face, the skater understood her younger sister’s point. This outfit really didn’t fit with the persona she had created for herself, and Fleur hadn’t even noticed until now. It was practical before anything else, in order to travel across the canal and compete during the weekend. Her skates, costumes and clothes all fit inside the duffel bag and there was no need to dispatch it and risk the chance of the airline losing her work equipment. She made those choices without thinking about journalists, interviews and sponsors.

“ _You finally look like a cool athlete. Happy that I taught you a thing or two by sending my competition pictures.”_ Gabi wasn’t letting her sister think too much about her statement, besides that Fleur looked good and ‘relaxed.’ Even if she didn’t agree with it, she did appreciate the fact that her sister stopped the self awareness train of thought.

_“Skiing clothes are not a fashion statement Gabrielle.”_

_“Only downhill losers say that. Come one, let me take a picture so I can send to mom and dad.”_ Gabi grabbed her phone and aimed towards her sister that waved and smiled towards the camera. Following by taking a selfie of them and showing to Fleur. “ _See? The great Delacour smile.”_

Fleur couldn’t stop the sideway smile coming up. Maybe Delacour could relax. It’s part of the healing process, right?

Once Hermione came back from leaving the luggage, Gabi insisted they took the Tram for old times sake for Fleur and showing what the city looked like to the coach. “You’re not really seeing the city, she just gets car sick if she sits in the back.” Fleur whispered to Hermione, who giggled in amusement.

Sensing that someone was talking about her, Gabi turned around as soon as the train got into the station. Making a dramatic entrance while walking backwards without taking her squinty eyes of her companions. “So, Gabrielle” Hermione started, trying to pick up a conversation and moving a little further away from Fleur. “You’re in University then?”

“Yes, I am. First year Political Science.” Gabi tipped her cap as she said it very proudly.

“What made you interested in it?”

“Immigration. Well, immigration policy to be accurate. I want to work in developing better policies for immigrants in France.” Fleur could see the shine of interest in Hermione’s eyes. She was great at talking with the kids at the rink, but this time the topic hit close to her heart. “We are not a very welcoming country in general, as everyone knows. And it’s just something that got to me a lot when I was deciding what I wanted to study.”

“Why not a degree in policies then? That would be better to get a job at the government.”

“The université here in Grenoble prepare you for policies and research.”

“Her program is the best in France and she does her Bachelors and Masters in five years. She’s not saying it, but it is quite impressive.” Fleur leaned in to add the information that made Gabi’s face grow a shade of red.

“Thank you, Fleur. But it’s really nothing impressive.” The younger Delacour was trying to turn the attention to something else now “It’s not like I have a degree in mathématique just because I thought it was fun.” Hermione turned to Fleur with a shocked expression.

“You have a diploma in mathematics?”

“Is that hard to believe?” Fleur shoved her hands in her jacket pockets as they left the tram and had to walk in the direction of the restaurant.

“Oui!” Gabi answered quickly and her and Hermione nodded in sync.

“It was a silly decision. I should have got a practical diploma that I can use after retiring. No use being a figure skater with a math degree.”

“Oh, come on.” Granger said with a bit of huff in her voice, which made Fleur stop on her tracks, letting the coach and her sister walk by her. “You had the privilege of studying something you enjoy and not directly affect your livelihood. Don’t insult the knowledge you got when so many don’t have the chance. It has nothing to do with retiring and figure skating in your case.” Granger said the last part while side eying Fleur, now behind her. That was the look that she gave Harry or Ron when they were saying something without thinking about the circumstance of things.

Fleur looked down and kicked some small rocks, knowing very well that Hermione had the reason this time. Gabi started some conversation with the coach and she tagged along, not feeling like she had something to add. When Fleur finally tuned in again to the conversation between her companions, they were sitting at the restaurant table. Her level of exhaustion was much higher than she thought if she was zooning out once again.

“But you’re Fleur’s coach.” Gabi stated, making herself comfortable in the seat in front of Hermione.

“I’m not actually. I’m just the jump coach. This is an arrangement for this year because McGonagall couldn’t do all the travels and I have a coach certificate that allows me to follow officially.” She waived off and grabbed the menu that was left at the table.

“I might be biased because I only read articles and get information from the baba yaga here. But I’m pretty sure you changed her career.”

Hermione took a deep breath while she hid behind the menu. “I really appreciate the sentiment. I really do. It’s just weird to have this spotlight on me when I’m so young and inexperienced. I’ve already messed up sometimes and I need to understand there is a gap I can’t fill yet.” Fleur noticed that Granger glanced in her direction and went back to reading the menu. ‘She couldn’t be talking about Skate Canada still, could she?’ Fleur wondered and her face must have asked Hermione the question in her mind because her coach mouthed a ‘Later’ behind the menu.

Gabi noticed a change of subject was needed and starting talking about the place they were. K Fée de Jeux was a bar and game restaurant by the Isère river that the Delacour sisters frequented a lot since they were young. Their family lives west of Grenoble in a smaller town because of the wine vineyard that they own, and used to travel to the mountains for ski and summer trips. When Fleur decided to start her Juniors career, she needed to be closer to a bigger rink so their family invested on a small apartment in Grenoble where the older daughter could finish the Lycée and skate. Now, Gabi uses it while she goes to Uni.

“You must have got in so much trouble living by yourself.” Hermione stated while drinking her wine.

“Not as much as you, Ronald and Harry in boarding school. I’m sure.” Fleur retorted with a smug smile.

“She did fall into the river while drunk and trying to ride a bike.” Gabi added and all she got was a piece of fries straight into her left eye.

“Gabi once decided that she could get to the foot of the mountain in less than five minutes. Only thing she got was a broken arm in two.”

“What is this? Who has the worst story about the other? Cause I have tons, sister.”

The night finally turned to a more relaxed page. Fleur was still feeling herself zooning out from time to time, which prompted more jokes that also came with teasing from Hermione. She was happy to see her coach being able to talk with Gabi about happy things, even if that meant sharing stories about Fleur’s personality, habits and behaviours.

“Does she still do that horrible thing of peacocking around junior skates?”

“Every. Time. A junior cannot land a jump that she somewhat needs to do it, only _much better_. The other seniors make a bingo every three months which they create their own lines. ‘Fleur jumping after a junior’ is always on Ginny’s column.” Hermione handed her credit card to pay for dinner, against the complaints of the two Delacour’s.

“Ginny sounds like a very smart person.” Gabi says after slipping a twenty euro’s bill inside the coach’s jacket pocket.

“Someone you will never meet.” Fleur stated quickly as she got up from the table. “Too much chaos together will be the end of us all.”

“You just say that because she tried to hit on you last week.” Hermione laughed while she put on her jacket and gave Gabi back the twenty euros. Gabi rolled her eyes but put her money back inside her pocket. “Are you sure you don’t want us to pay a cab for you?”

“Oui. I’m going to my friend’s house to grab some notes before heading home either way. But thank you Hermione. It was a pleasure to meet you” Gabi gave the coach a big hug and then moved to do the same to her sister. “I like her. You should keep” She whispered into Fleur’s ear, who only looked confused as she saw her sister walking away. She’s too tired to even bother to understand what is going on around her today. Her mind must have shut off when they got inside the tram or something.

“She’s really nice Fleur. You’re lucky to have her.” Granger said, now a tired voice taking over her excitement of a couple of minutes ago.

“Gabi is really something. You should see her and Papadakis together.”

“I know. You told me that in Ottawa.” Fleur groaned in frustration to the universe and Hermione looked at her with a questioning look. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated. I have the impression this whole night has been a jumble of events happening too fast for my brain to catch up and I keep forgetting and saying things without thinking.”

“Want to talk about it?” The warm tone that the woman next to her asked the question made Fleur mind clear a little. Feel more awake. “Come on, let’s walk by the river and you can tell me what’s on your mind. Just don’t go trying to swim.”

Fleur rolled her eyes but followed Hermione, who was quietly waiting for her companion to start the conversation. The French woman didn’t know how to do it, she wasn’t even sure if something was bothering her besides this weird mental fog. “This city brings a lot to my mind.” Was the only thing she managed to pull out of her haze.

“Because of Uni?”

“No. Well, not Uni.” Fleur looked at the river and remembered how she used to spend afternoons walking around here with her family, trying to find Gabi inside the Bastille “The emotional baggage. I haven’t seen my family in a while and I haven’t talked to them a lot besides some messages. So, that came up when Gabi showed up today. To be honest with you, I forgot they would show up.”

“Why?” There was no judgement in Hermione’s voice, only pure warmth.

“It’s so dumb. When the whole Louise debacle happened, they were so supportive for me to come out. But I didn’t want to. I just wanted to wallow in peace and be sad. Skate out of spite or something like that. Then I focused on skating and haven’t talked to them.” Delacour stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts once again. “Gabi showing up being supportive as if nothing has happened. It was nice, but I wanted her to be mad.”

As the words rolled out, the cork that was holding Fleur’s emotions popped off and she felt dizzy. She leaned on the stone barrier between the sidewalk and the river. “Gabi is so supportive. Even when I’m in my worst. When I was with Louise, I ignored her for so long. I just kept thinking how she was young and naïve and silly. She grew up to be a much person than I am.” Fleur felt a hand holding her own and giving a squeeze. She could only focus on the sound of the river though. “This city gives me so many good memories, but also reminds me how I moved to Paris for bigger things and went nowhere. How I ignored my family to stay with my ex. How no matter what I try I just feel like I’m drowning in a pool of my own creation. I can’t even dance a program that I thought I could. I’m just forsaken to keep repeating this pity party.”

There, everything was out. The daze was still present, but the fog dissipated.

“Fleur Isabelle Delacour, you’re so impatient.” The smirk in Granger’s face would have made Fleur anger if it was anyone else, but she weirdly felt at peace.

“Why you say that?”

“You went through so much and you want to be well in so little time. You’re sounding like Ron, skipping strength training and expecting to be able to jump.”

Fleur looked at the water running in front of her, now mixing the sound of cars passing by on the street. She looked at the person on her side. Hermione has such a pretty smile, it’s so comforting. “You’re right. You’re always right Granger. Kinda infuriating.”

“You like it.” Hermione winked at her but then turned her face away. “I have an idea to help with your free skate emotional blackout.”

“Blackout? Uff. That bad?”

“After watching your program in Helsinki, it’s hard not to compare.” Hermione was focused in the Bastille’s walls on the other side of the river when she said that. If Fleur could bet, she would say that her coach was blushing, but she would never get a proper answer.

“You watched me in Helsinki?” Fleur’s best career performance was that year. Right after leaving Grenoble and before dating Louise. A time in her life where every piece was in its place. The stars not only aligned for Fleur, but for every top skater in the competition. For someone to be present and watching it live, it must have been a figure skating fanatic dream. Hermione had mentioned that she had watched her performances before, but Fleur assumed they were all recordings.

“Me and Harry had some extra money and my parents were in Australia that winter break. I was staying at Harry’s place and one night while drunk we said we wanted to go. The debt on my credit card was so worth it.” Her coach still wasn’t looking at her, but Fleur couldn’t stop smiling. “Either way. The idea for your lack of rainbow connection to Freddie Mercury.”

“Are you going to do a séance?” Hermione slapped the skater’s shoulder, who was starting to feel less stuffed with emotions and managed to release a loud laugh that muffled the noise of a camera shutter a little too close to them.

“Listen to the music and write down feelings for each part. Write a list, then after choose the ones that make sense to you and act them out. No feeling, just pure practical thinking.”

“Ok. I can do that. As you’ve just witnessed on my little speech.” Hermione eye rolled and moved away from the rail, leaving Fleur to run after her.

* * *

Fleur Delacour was cranky. She had ended the first day in forth place. Never had she started so low in the French tournament. Hermione was repeating to her - and to herself - that the difference was that they got two Russian girls in the tournament that made them go down. The unsaid fact is that Fleur should have ended up in third place not forth.

She should have seen it coming because the fog that had dissipated on the first night kept coming back to bother her. Training day was the first main warning, with Fleur missing jumps and music queues to the point were Granger told her to get out of the ice before she lost her confidence. The whole day was separated by mini session of questions and answers from the coach to the skater, trying to find the main source of anxiety. They would sit down somewhere separate and talk it out, the fog would go away, then come back again.

The French skater couldn’t be more grateful for Hermione. She was there listening, asking, making herself available. What she promised on the Gryffindor rink was being fulfilled, staying by her side, looking for answers together. Every time that her coach allowed Fleur to be closer, friendlier, she felt better, understood. The fog would dissipate and the weight would go away. She couldn’t have asked for a better partner. But Fleur couldn’t fulfill her part of the bargain and screwed her short program.

So, she was cranky. Delacour left the kiss and cry kicking her skates off and straight to the space separated for competitors to watch the rest of the short programs. As soon as the men singles started, her mind went to Vika and that he was beating himself for not ending up with silver and Fleur shivered. That could be her if she didn’t get her shit together quick. ‘Follow Hermione’s instructions. She knows what you should be doing.’

She was in her twentieth repeat of “The Show Must Go On” on her headphones and half a forearm of written scribbles, when Gabi entered and sat by her side without saying a word. Fleur took the headphones out to address her sister. “ _How was your test?”_

“ _It was fine. Not that complicated.”_ Gabi took a gummy package from her backpack and offered one to Fleur “ _It’s good to see you angry after that shit show of a program.”_

 _“You’re full of weird comments this weekend”_ A young French skater came onto the rink for his program. Fleur hadn’t met him yet and she made a mental note of trying to when she was back at the Hotel.

“ _Just nice to go watch the good Delacour crankiness when things don’t go according to plan.”_ Fleur looked at the gummy package suspiciously, as if her sister was taking drugs instead of sugary worms. “ _Just take it. It won’t mess with your food regimen, I promise.”_

Fleur grabbed a worm and took a bite of it, still on the suspicious side. “ _I’m trying to understand what you’re trying to imply with all this weird wisdom you’re throwing at me.”_

 _“There’s no wisdom Fleur. Only that you are a proud bitch - that I love - and it’s nice to see you back to a normal state after the whole.”_ Her sister made an L with her hand and put it on her forehead, which finally elicited a smile from the skater.

“ _I don’t feel like I’m back though.”_ Fleur threw the last part of the worm inside her mouth.

“ _You won’t be back to before dummie, you’re a different person. Just the habits that are inherent yours are coming back.”_ Fleur kept getting impressed by the generic but on point wisdom that was coming from her sister. She might have become a sap and the blame is totally on Vika. “ _Where is Hermione?”_ Her sister finally asked with a mouth filled with gummies.

 _“She stopped to talk with the journalists for me.”_ Fleur looked at the arena clock, she should have been back already. A shiver streamed through her, making the skater get up. “ _Can you save my spot and Hermione’s? I’m going to go find her.”_ And with that she bolted to the hallways of the rink, looking, listening, searching like a mad dog until she found what Fleur forgot would happen. Damn the mental fog.

Turning towards the lobby of the Grenoble arena, Fleur spotted Hermione with her silver jacket, red scrunchy and gold scarf representing Gryffindor colours. The coach was saying something towards a recorder held by no else but Louise Garnier. If there was a time for the mental fog to show up, this wasn’t it, but the tunnel vision got even more muddled inside Fleur’s mind. She could hide in the corner and hope for Hermione to be finished or walk there.

Walking there meant exposing herself to be hurt again by whatever words her ex could throw at her, plus the peril of setting Louise off. On the other hand, her past could be there damaging Hermione instead, and that, Fleur Isabelle Delacour would not allow.

Like a soldier getting ready for a battle that can’t be lost, Fleur adjusted her hair and her pristine French Federation jacket. High chin, pristine posture, the image of proper figure skating royalty walked towards them in a proper pace.

“Hi, bonjour.” Fleur said with a smile that underneath said ‘fuck you’ interjected in the middle of Hermione stating something about jump schedule and development being possible in a short time. The coach smiled back with eyes that screamed ‘I am about to kill this bitch’ while Louise looked like an orca whale that finally caught her seal. The poor people gathering in the lobby could feel the temperature drop.

“Pardon for interrupting, but I believe Miss Granger has extended her period of interviews for today.” Fleur motioned with her hands back towards the competitor’s entrance. “We still have a free skate strategy to go through for tomorrow.”

If Fleur expected Hermione to follow her cue and use the excuse to dismiss the rest of the interview, she was in for a ride. The coach didn’t move an inch and after acknowledging that she was there, her attention went back to Louise, eyes on fire. “Hi Fleur. I was just here finishing explaining to, sorry, what’s your name again?”

The smirk onto Louise’s face faded but she made an effort of providing a polite yellow smile. “Garnier, Louise Garnier.”

“Yes, Garnuer” Hermione butchered her name on purpose and Fleur was trying not to laugh in surprise. “She asked me about your triple axel regimen. Apparently, you developed too fast for her to believe it was legal and I was explaining how a competent person and athlete could have done it.”

“They are just general questions Miss Granger. You understand how we try to cover everything.” Fleur once liked that deep voice, now she wanted to shove her closed hand very tenderly on the bottom part of her face and maybe start a tooth fairy business. Who insinuated doping before? Rita. ‘Louise is working with Skeeter, Mark told you that, you idiot!’

“I understand. It’s part of being a journalist for so many sports.” Louise made the effort to ignore the jab again, as she always boasts of being able to only cover figure skating. Hermione was going for the jugular and Fleur wondered if she had done previous research on her ex, and if she had been doing that the whole interview with Louise just kept holding off so Fleur could eventually appear.

“It is indeed challenging” Louise smiled to Granger and turned to Delacour “Nevertheless, now that we have you here Miss Delacour. What can you say related to your terrible performance today?” The rush of watching Hermione verbally beating the shit out of Louise vanished and the skater felt her polite expression wanting to vanish.

“It wasn’t optimal, but there is still room for podium tomorrow.”

“What are your feelings related to the possibility of not being on the top three of the Internacionaux since you started your Seniors career?” Fleur didn’t have time to think of a polite answer because Hermione scoffed. Loudly. Like a teenager facing authority style of mockery.

“What a question. She will end up in the podium tomorrow. Fleur does it in training, she can do it here.”

“Delacour has a fame of being difficult to deal with. Is she the same at the Gryffindor rink?”

“Fleur is one of the best skaters we ever had at the arena. She is a great athlete and also helps younger skaters when she can. As someone that spends most of the week in her presence, I can attest to that.”

“Would you say that you have full confidence and trust in her then?”

“Yes. Like a good coach should.”

“Testimonials of people around the Gryffindor team say that you two enjoy a more friendly relationship than just coach and athlete. What you say to that?”

“Fleur and I have a friendship, if that’s what you’re implying.”

The question-answer rally was faster than the ones at Wimbledon and Fleur definitely lost her composure for a moment in between, but both women were too busy focusing on each other to notice. The skater came here to get them out of this conversation, only to become a blind person in the middle of a shootout. Fruit of her daze, Fleur grabbed Hermione’s arm to try and get her back towards the rink, which brought Louise’s attention.

“Would you confirm this friendship Miss Delacour?” Louise didn’t even pan the recorder towards her, giving up on the journalist farce.

Fear was the first feeling to show up in Fleur’s mind, but as she took a proper look onto Louise’s face, she felt Hermione’s hand touching hers. And for a moment, she believed everything would be alright.

“I do. ‘Mione has trusted me and given me support to develop my skating better than any coach I had in ten years of the sport. And I’ve only known her for a few months. I’m honored that she’s my coach and my friend. I couldn’t have asked for a better person.” Fleur felt a squeeze to her hand but she could only stare straight into her ex’s eyes. How did they get in this situation? Why was Louise behaving like this? Delacour might never know, and it wasn’t her responsibility to deal with whatever issues the other woman had. She pushed her to a limit of perfection and then wanted to bring her down when Fleur didn’t deliver. It was never about her. It was always about Louise.

“I have everything I need. Merci.” The journalist shut off her recorder and put it back inside her purse. “Bonne chance” She said only to Fleur and left without looking behind once.

“Hey.” Hermione squeezed Delacour’s hand again, who finally took her eyes out of the arena doors. “How you feeling?”

“Weird.”

“Sorry I went ballistic on your crazy ex.” Fleur laughed at that. Of course, Granger would apologize for it.

“You were really polite. Did you know I came in here to try and save you?” Her coach opened up a warm smile and she felt like mimicking.

“Funny. I also was thinking about trying to save you. Will she try to enact revenge you think?”

“Revenge. How fancy of you.” They turned towards the competitor’s entrance, still attached to each other by Fleur holding Hermione’s arm. “It’s too late to worry about that now. Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal when it comes.”

“Don’t get me wrong, but you sound calmer than I was expecting.”

“It’s because I have the best coach in the world.” And Fleur ignored the little thought in the back of her head that maybe this was way more than she was prepared to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I do appreciate everyone that follows this little figure skating corner of the fandom.
> 
> I saw that the fleurmione week was happening and I tried to sit my ass down to write more regularly and get this chapter out while it was going on but even then I didn't manage to release it in time. So many cool stories coming from it, which warmed my heart <3


	16. The Show Must Go On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is sponsored by Bly Manor breaking my heart and making me rush to write nice feelings.
> 
> Italics are French.

It’s interesting when you like someone. Swiping on an app, you decide that pictures and maybe a bio reflect a specific personality – or lack thereof – and you make a bet. At a bar, the bet becomes a look, maybe a smile, the chips on the table start showing up. An embarrassment here, a spoken rejection there, but you won’t see the person again. It’s socially safe. The odds just really change when you know the person. You’ve seen their fears and joys, so it’s not a bet anymore.

It’s a fight to the death between your heart and your brain.

Fools will say there is a middle ground that allows you to like them and still be around. Masochists, if you allow me to say so, who will stay next to the person for the comfort of not moving on because that would require strength and more suffering than they have the capacity of dealing with. Living of scraps, hopes that they can get a green signal and make a safe bet without losing anything.

Hermione hates those people. She wouldn’t say that out loud, but the idea of living in between something because a decision might be too painful is just preposterous. You make sacrifices and move on because you need to live. Move on. Which is why she was very much keeping her decision of distance from Fleur Isabelle Delacour by accepting afternoon tea hangouts, going out for dinner with her sister and being a rude ass bitch to her ex. Yes, a usual coach job in being friendly and keeping your skater happy. Nothing more.

The fact that she is sitting on her skater’s bed, holding her left arm trying to read words that connect to a free skate while avoiding the bare legs in front of her because of a pajama - that should not be wore during winter time at all - has nothing to do with the so called middle ground of keeping someone you like close while trying to be distant. Because Hermione is, after all, her coach. Even if lines and wants have been getting more and more muddy since they came back from Canada and Grenoble is not helping at all.

“Do you think this makes sense?” Fleur asked her while looking intensely at her coach. She still seemed a little out of it, unfocused. But there is something about this “high on feelings” Delacour that is throwing Hermione out of her usual work groove. She is talking about her emotions and opening up, being vulnerable. Who would have imagined that career focused prissy blonde girl that walked into the rink that first day would be here with an arm filled with scribbles, hanging on every word Hermione said?

“ _You’re still her coach. She trusts you because of work, nothing more.”_ A mantra that kept being repeated inside Granger’s brain but the heart kept ignoring. The coach released an audible sigh and let go of the arm, allowing herself to give a bit of space between the other body sitting on top of the bed. “It does make sense, but it’s still a bunch of words that don’t really connect. Moving on. Living. Smiling when wanting to cry. They are great ideas but do you think you can connect to them emotionally?” Fleur brought her long shirt sleeve back to its place and held to it, looking to the corner of the floor, lost in thought. “Do you know the story of this song?”

“It’s about Freddie and his battle against AIDS.”

“It’s a part of it, yes. But, it’s a little grimmer than that. Mercury gave an idea of a theme for the song and wrote some parts, but Brian May wrote a great bunch of it, plus the melody, because his friend was dying. It’s a song about, living” Hermione pointed to Fleur’s arm “But living while knowing something horrible is around the corner. For Freddie it was death. For some people it is something less final. It’s a hopeful song that ends on a very sad note. Lyrically and metaphorically, it starts on a B minor, moves to a C sharp and lowers again to the B. I digress.” The coach waved her hand and ignored the side smile creeping in on the French face in front of her. “The Show Must Go On is not about moving on to better times, it’s about embracing something that is unavoidable and going through it, because your will to live and be yourself is greater.”

The moment after the last breath Hermione took and Fleur’s following words stretched for an immeasurable time. If a pin fell inside the carpeted floor, we would have to explain to the neighbours why they were being so loud. Hermione counted four different expressions happening in Fleur’s face, each one of them unique and confusing. The first, the trademark side smile that was spreading as she finished nerding out about Queen. A mark of amusement or teasing that could go either way depending on the day. The smile didn’t reach its full eye wrinkle position when it got hijacked to a second location, turning into an almost open mouth of worry and distress. However, a third expression was quicker and before an “oh” could be said Fleur opened her smile like a male peacock showing his feathers. The fourth and last expression was laughter and a tender look of understanding towards Hermione.

“I get it. It was so simple.” Fleur got up from the bed, pulling up some pants on top of her pajama shorts. “I need to make a call. But that’s it! You’re a genius ‘Mione!” Leaving a kiss on her coach’s cheek the skater ran outside the room.

“Wait, what did make sense? Fleur! We have a free skate to discuss!” Granger shouted after Fleur, but her voice was soon blocked by the closing door. Hermione wanted to go after her and ask what was so simple, but her heart had won this time because it was warm inside and fools live on scraps.

Her phone pinged in the middle of swooning over the warmth left by French lips and brought her back into the game. She had a new message from Ginny and two older ones from McGonagall.

_Minerva on Friday 18:14  
I agree with your assessment Miss Granger. I also believe there was a case of anticipating the next movement instead of staying in the moment. Probably nerves. It happens to us all._

_Minerva on Friday 18:20  
If you allow me to give you an advice as a mentor, Hermione. I appreciate the effort you’re making in helping our athletes not only physically but mentally. Mr. Krum’s mood improved after your statistical “care box.” However, there are things in which we shouldn’t get tangled with in their lives, for our own sake. You are a bright young coach with a serious future and I would hate to see you getting tired at the start._

Great. Minerva was being wise and correct again. They had a similar conversation a couple of years back, before she took her job at the rink. At the time Hermione’s mind was focused in helping Harry and Ron to get out of Uni and skate properly, her own career and goals gone of her mind in order to fulfill a higher calling. It did bring the formal job offer, but with an addendum: do not put yourself in second.

Granger’s tendency of putting other’s happiness was known and abused when younger. Eager to please, to connect. A girl that was different and too smart, her salvation was the skating rink where she could just be with the ice and her knowledge was appreciated since the beginning. Precocious and figure skating walk hand in hand.

She wondered if she was doing that in relation to Fleur. Letting the skater come first, or this was just a complicated plot to be selfish with her emotions. There weren’t many things that Hermione didn’t want to learn, this was an exception.

After looking at Ginny’s message Hermione decided it was easier to just call her. Answering would take too much time and the Weasley types much faster than her. The phone didn’t even ring once properly when the call got picked up.

“Yo, boss!” The excited voice answered. The coach could hear the sound of keyboard clicking in the back. Ginny was probably taking this very seriously if she is on her personally crafted computer doing what she asked her to.

“Hey. So, she just released the piece about Fleur not ending up on the podium?”

“Exactly. She has two other pen names that she could have used to write something. But they are silent. It’s weird though.” Hermione got up and started pacing around her room.

“It’s at least suspicious. This woman has information but she didn’t use it. Do you think she will publish something tomorrow?”

“She could, it would just be stupid. Because…” Ginny got lost in thought, the keyboard clicking stopped. Hermione got nervous at the pause.

“Because what Gin?”

“Because it wouldn’t be good if she wanted to reach more people and create more damage. She needed to have used the article about the podium for that. Whatever she writes after this needs to wait until the competition ends, before it, no one is going to care. The main story is that Fleur might not be in the French podium for the first time in all her career. That’s it.”

“Anything on social media?” Hermione felt the blood coming out of her finger that apparently, she was picking.

“Nothing besides the fans and the new gays finding out about Fleur free skate costume. It’s pretty safe.” Ginny seemed to have opened a package of something crunchy and started munching on it.

“Tell me you’re not breaking your diet Ginevra.”

“You’re not my coach right now. You’re a friend asking for me to spy on your crush ex.” Hermione inhaled so quick that she chocked on saliva and took a minute to recompose herself after coughing for her life. “Whoa there, champ. No need to get that worked up. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Because you’re a piece of chaotic shit?” That came out more aggressive than expected, but Ginny laughed on the other side.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here if you want to talk about it.” Hermione hugged herself with her free arm and finally sat down at the armchair by the window. Feet up and trying to become a perfect ball of human embarrassment. Could she really talk about it? And first of all, if Ginny knows, who else in the rink has noticed to?

“I just…I can’t Ginny.” It was too much inside her head already, trying to work while having these feelings. Talking about it would only make them more real.

“You can’t talk about it or you can’t have a crush on her?”

“Both. I’m her coach Ginny.” A hint of a headache started showing up on the right side of her head. The silence that she got as an answer at least showed that the girl on the other side of the call understood what she wanted to say. There is no easy way out of these feelings right now. The season is happening and as long as both of them work at the rink, professionalism is King. Nothing more.

“Understood.” Ginny was chewing on the back of a pencil and making a mental note to let Harry know she wasn’t up for the bet anymore, after listening to the hopeless answer Hermione gave her. “I’m serious though, here if you need. Just, remember to be nicer to yourself.”

Hermione thanked her and hanged up. She threw the cellphone on top of her bed and hugged her legs a little tighter. “Until the end of the season. You just need to stay until the end of the season.”

* * *

The air in the arena was different today. It was lighter, warmer. Hermione wondered if someone raised the temperature of the heaters in the common areas. Maybe it was the weekend, filling up the chairs with more passionate fans. Hermione couldn’t really place it. She just knew that her skater went to change and hasn’t showed up yet.

Fleur resurfaced in the morning, knocking excitedly at her coach’s door. She dragged Hermione towards the breakfast buffet, talking about running into Mark and other French skaters that morning already. As Fleur filled herself with food, eating a little faster than the usual poise, Hermione paid attention while nursing a cup of coffee. The fog present on Fleur’s mind the last three days seemed to have dissipated. The woman was alert, chirpy and don’t get Hermione wrong with this, but gayer?

The French woman seemed to have awaken to a new version of herself that she had allowed only few people to see before. She was relaxed, amiable, talking with everyone. No poise, no ice queen persona, just Fleur talking louder than expected in the hotel breakfast section. She was wearing over sized hoodie and sweatpants plus her colorful Adidas originals – only Hermione and Krum have seen the amount of those she has in her closet – while seating with her legs crossed on top of the chair. What Granger really wanted to say with all these details is that if someone came into that room and had to guess who was the gay, Fleur Delacour would be the one winning.

Hermione laughed at the idea, which prompted a questioning look from the skater. “Are you ready for your free skate?” She asked, changing the subject. Fleur didn’t bother to finish munching on her watermelon. A smirk and a nod were all that she gave her coach.

Waiting on the warm up area, Hermione re-read Minerva’s message from the prior day and took to heart that there are things Fleur needs to do by herself. If she was confident on her free skate, it was only fair that the coach trusts her. It’s a two-way street relationship in this sport.

A whistle came from the hallway and Granger saw that Fleur was walking back towards her. The skater sent a kiss at the person who whistled for her and added a little more swing to her walk which prompted a second whistling. The free skate costume didn’t affect Hermione that much when they were in Ottawa. Mostly because she was still so much in gay panic about having a massive crush that she avoided any visual contact bellow Fleur’s eyes. If she had to say what the costume was now, the only word she would be able to mutter is “nice.”

“What is nice?” Fleur asked as she got close and crouched to grab her French Federation jacket from her backpack.

“That warm up right there.” When Fleur turned to look at the person she was referring to, Hermione shook her desperate expression out of her face and became neutral again. Bless her dark skin for not allowing to blush in these circumstances.

“A leg stretch using a bar?” Her skater turned back to her with an amused smile.

“It’s the way they are doing it. You wouldn’t understand.” The coach turned to her nails. Fleur licked her teeth and opened up her smile a little more.

“Right. Hermione, the coach with the great eye for detail.” Fleur puts on her jacket and on a swift motion steps closer to her coach. It takes a strong will of character to not step back quickly to not get anyone’s attention. Hermione can even smell Fleur’s shampoo from this distance. “Can you see how today is going to end?”

The coach couldn’t guess how the day was going to end, but she did see the eye wrinkles created by her skater’s smile. “I unfortunately only see things in the present. Haven’t mastered future readings yet.” Fleur needed to move soon, because Granger managed to notice a beauty mark on top of the girl’s left eyebrow. This was full gay panic danger zone.

“I can see it.” Fleur whispered to her and finally moved away from her. “I will do my best program and will end in third.” She moved towards the chair they provided in order to put exchange her shoes for her skates. Hermione swallowed a little too loud for her taste and managed to move

“But that means…”

“I know what it means.” Fleur cut the phrase but gave her a confident smile. Hermione didn’t exactly understand why she felt okay with that blunt statement. She can only blame on trust.

* * *

Fleur was intrigued but not surprised on how every time she has a major realization in her life it is because a metaphorical bus has hit her right in the face. It’s never a slow realization, it’s just complete mental fog and unawareness until, BAM. Things make sense. Not the most effective system, but it never failed her, so that will do.

She wasn’t in love with skating anymore. Not the way that she has been doing it. This whole season started because she was stubborn. Wouldn’t let her ex win in some way, scrapping away day by day her love of the sport. She thought that this pettiness was still what was moving her to be here until Hermione started her ramble about ‘The Show Must Go On.’ It was the same way that happened in Ottawa. Something clicked inside of her and she knew. She had stopped being petty a long time ago, she just didn’t catch up.

Hermione was the reason. Fleur was skating for her. For the career that she can have after this, for the respect she needs to earn and the place at the table. To show everyone that Hermione Granger is a proper coach. The best coach.

“I’m the most stupid lesbian on the face of the earth.” Fleur told herself as she opened the door to her room. Admitting she had been in love with her coach for longer than she expected would take time, but she would start with accepting that the feelings exist right now. And what can she do in relation to them? Well, she could start by addressing the elephant in the room.

She chose a contact and put her phone by her ear, listening to the ringing.

“ _Fleur! So nice to hear from you.”_ Her mother’s voice came from the other side.

“ _Am I interrupting?”_

“ _Not at all darling. We just came back from dinner.”_

 _“How’s South Africa?”_ Apolline laughed her fancy laugh on the other side.

_“You didn’t call me to know about work Fleur. Get to the point.”_

_“Ok, but don’t say I didn’t try to ease you onto it.”_ Fleur stopped to see if there was any reaction from the other side of the phone, but nothing came. “ _I am in love with my coach and I want to retire.”_

_“Your coach? Minerva?”_

“ _No! Oh my god maman. Hermione. The jump coach.”_

_“You got me worried for a second.”_

_“Me wanting to retire doesn’t worry you?”_ To be honest, Fleur expected some kind of negative reaction, but she knew she wasn’t going to get it.

 _“Why? If you feel this is the time to stop, I won’t convince you otherwise. You’re the only one that can have a word on your limits and wants. Do you want me to write a statement?”_ By the sound, the Delacour mother seemed to have opened her purse and ripped a piece of paper from the hotel room notebook.

“ _I want to wait to release a statement after the grand prix final. It’s better timing.”_

 _“What about the coach? When is that statement coming?”_ Fleur groaned and tapped her foot like a toddler and her mom seemed to catch up on it. “ _Are you retiring because of her?”_

 _“Yes and no. I’m not having fun anymore. It feels like punching a knife.”_ Fleur made a motion of punching the air. “ _I realized I’ve been skating for her, and as much as I would be able to keep doing that, there is no future for me in staying on a middle ground. I need to end this part of my life to move on.”_

“ _You’ve grown so much Fleur. Me and your father are really proud of you.”_

_“I’ve also made a lot of mistakes.”_

_“That’s part of growing darling. You’re still young, even though you live a very adult life. You’re only twenty-five.”_ Fleur didn’t know what to say to her mother. If Apolline was in front of her she would have hugged and stayed holding her until someone made them stop hugging. That’s the amount of love Fleur wanted to give her mother. If she can’t hug her, she can at least give her one of the most important moments of her life.

“ _You should tune in for my free skate tomorrow.”_

_“Big plans?”_

_“A pre-statement of sorts.”_

_“I can’t wait for it darling.”_

* * *

The secret about using Queen music in skating programs is that you can get the crowd and yourself going when you don’t necessarily have a strong program. It’s always a safe choice for beginning of career or gala’s, where nothing is at stake. Everyone knows the lyrics, the rhythm gets to you and soon people are clapping. If you’re feeling especially adventurous a medley of Queen songs is the ultimate crowd pleaser and that will give you more presentation points for sure.

But no one dances to ‘The Show Must Go On’ or ‘Leaving Home Ain’t Easy’, the first one too sad and the second no one usually remembers because it’s right before ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ in the album. And nothing beats ‘Don’t Stop Me Now.’

When Fleur decided to have it for her free skate, no one bated an eye. It made sense, a sad song as short program, a moving on song as free. They choreographed as intended and how people expect it. So, imagine the shock when Delacour starts dancing and the only thing you feel is chills. Not because it’s beautiful, or soft, but because it’s bone chilling haunting.

The movements were the same, the jump entrances also, but she added a feeling of death. Someone embracing their imminent end while dancing through its final moments. Some commentators compared it to a hanging walk, or a soldier walking towards battle knowing very well it won’t leave there alive. Every second of the song felt like watching a Greek tragedy in which you know there will be bloodshed, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

It was as Freddy intended.

When the final echo repeating ‘the show must go on’ indicating the end of the song happened, the stadium took two seconds to remember they needed to breath. Fleur stretched out of her final stance still embraced by dead silence. They both remember that moment so well.

Hermione not realizing a tear had come down her face while watching, to entranced by the emotions of seeing Fleur’s saying her first goodbyes to her career. And Delacour. New sweet Delacour, fresh from killing her old self and ready to be someone new. If she was lucky and played her cards right, together with the person she needed the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!  
> We've reached the middle point of the story.  
> I have to admit I almost gave up on it because I made the huge mistake of re-reading some stuff that I avoided on purpose and then the good old high standards slapped me in the face. But as a good exercise in just writing what feels good I managed to get out of the self deprecation head space.
> 
> Hope you're enjoying it! It's almost skating season in the north section of this planet and I can't wait to have open public rinks again (one win for canada)


	17. The Price of Silence

November’s are always weird.

They are so weird, that there was a mutual agreement that the bingo card would get halted during this month two years ago. It might have involved Filch showing up with a girlfriend and Ginny eating her paper right in front of McGonagall, but Ron is the only one who saw the two events and swears until this day that their coach looked at the ice dancer with a confused but look of approval. Hermione refuses to comment, leaving the mystery grow by itself.

Either way, anything can happen in the month of November. They are three weeks away from UK Nationals and with the added tension of waiting for the Grand Prix Finals lineup, even the kids noticed the change of pace and focus inside the rink. Some of the most problematic ones – specially William the ‘I can hockey stop before hitting the wall’ – decided they would behave, making Neville a little paranoid that something was up.

Hermione and McGonagall, finally in the same place since the beginning of Fleur and Krum’s season, were on a roll. Instructions were cleaner than ever, even Harry and Ron were taking less time to understand what they needed to work on in terms of choreography and technique. It’s as if the circuit brought them a constant flow of figure skate thinking. All their lives were planned to the second, with study, training, relaxing time, figured out until February – Hermione was certain they would go to Worlds apparently.

Which is why Luna was there having lunch with Harry, as he was kicked out of the ice for a few hours in relaxing time, but he still wanted to see what kinds of adjustments Hermione was giving Ron. “It’s a weird feeling.” Luna said as she looked around the rink. “It’s like when you feel in your skin that a storm is coming. But it is as if you’re all the cast of Twister, running towards the tornado.” She brought another piece of the shepherd’s pie to her mouth and went back to observing the five skaters and their coaches in the rink. Harry nodded along with her, because she is in a sense, right. He wouldn’t call it a tornado, because a specialist would be thrilled researching it. This is more in the veins of a very stressful thing that you know will get you traumatized, but you do it anyway because of the end result. Like grad school.

“We are a bit bonkers, aren’t we?” Harry said, with a mouth full of pie.

“I think everyone is obsessed with something.” Luna chipped in. Eyes following Ginny and Neville, the same way that Harry’s were focused on Ron and Hermione. “It was John Waters that said ‘Life is nothing without obsession’, or something like that.”

“I have no clue who John Waters is, but I will take you on that.” Luna finally took her eyes off of the skaters to eye roll at Harry. She tried fixing some of his unruly hair, in a movement that should have made the boy feel something different than, ‘this is perfectly fine.’ But he was, indeed, perfectly fine with it. If someone dare to say, he was perfectly happy and unbothered by her presence close to him. It was welcomed.

Luna looked at the strand of hair that refused to go to its proper place and kept playing with it, like a bouncing toy, until “You Spin Me Round” started playing over the speakers again and Harry made a sound that could be used in the new Jurassic Park movie.

“The beginning of this song is going to trigger me forever.”

Hermione thought the same thing as she pressed play and turned to look at the routine. Ron was unexpectedly good at dancing. It never transferred to dry land though. He is very meticulous in his movements when he is focused, and god forbid Hermione saying that out loud, but his footwork was the best out of the men group. The Weasley secretly liked the performance of it more than the jumps, which is weird because he refused to do ice dancing his whole life. Only a therapist to deal with his issues of masculinity.

His program was tight. Little sloppy on his jump combo connections, but consistent. When he finished his extravagant short program routine Hermione clapped together with everyone else in the rink. His face of pure happiness, the trademark freckles glowing with the sweat that came down underneath his short hair. Granger understood in these moments why she had dated him. But not only of good times a relationship lives.

“That was really good Ron.” She said when he came back, gliding in one leg as if he wasn’t tired. “I just want you to work on the triple toe triple flip transition plus the ina bauer after the axel and we can move towards cleaning your free skate.”

“And here I thought I’d finally get a compliment from _the_ Hermione Granger.” He grabbed a hand towel he left hanging at the rink entrance and dried his face and hair, making it spiky with the electricity generated by the dry air of the arena. “But you are most definitely right. You did have the best ina bauer we’ve seen around here.” He smiled at the coach, who for the first time felt like this was a true moment of friendship and comradery that they had lost when they started going out.

“Who are you and what did you do to Ronald Weasley?” Hermione grabbed his cheeks and pulled them enough not to hurt him. A sign of rough affection in return. They would be fine. Maybe this crazy season would end up fine.

Ron threw his wet towel at Hermione’s face and they were about to start a silly brotherly fight when another piece of music started. One the coach knew very well at this point, and the same way as “You Spin Me Round” would trigger her forever, “Lovely” would have a permanent place in her memories.

Fleur did her short program routine as usual. No missteps, fluidity, sadness. It didn’t hurt watching it this time, because Hermione knew Fleur’s heart wasn’t broken anymore. What did hurt was the retirement announcement that came after Grenoble. She knew it was coming after her program, but one thing is the possibility versus the reality. The feeling Hermione felt during the meeting was shoved into an envelope and put inside a dusty cabinet in the depths of her mind. McGonagall agreed that the skater would stick around until they announced the Grand Prix Final lineup, which they also had a mutual understanding that Fleur wouldn’t be a part of – statistically speaking.

Thinking about that quick meeting this morning added more complicated emotions to the pile of ‘to process’ list that Granger was stashing away. The excitement hidden beneath the crocked smile Fleur gave McGonagall couldn’t be missed. Soon, Fleur would be gone towards greener pastures after an emotional eye-opening season. “I want to find a way to enjoy skating again.” Hermione shoved that line onto thought jail with a sprinkle of anger.

“You should talk to her.” Ron whispered underneath the music, only for Hermione to hear.

“We talk every day. I train her.” She looked at him without understanding what was the point.

“Mione.” He said with a tone of voice that reminded of his mother’s and this was a bad, _bad_ sign. “I’ve dated you. I wish you looked at me the way you look at her since you came back.”

If looks could kill, Ronald would be facing his hundredth death by now, he was just adding another one to the list. The audacity of mentioning that to her, right now, at the rink, with everyone near. Doesn’t matter that there is a song playing in the speakers.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Harry put his water bottle back down. “Everything in the rink looks fine. Ginny and Neville are talking with McGonagall, Fleur is dancing, Krum is waiting for his slot, Hermione and Ron are discussing. There is nothing out of the usual.” Luna smirked. Harry was getting better at figuring out his emotions, but it would be too much to expect him to notice all of his friends also. She knew that there was no way at this point that someone didn’t know of the French elephant in the room, besides the two elephants. Which is what each side of the rink seemed to be whispering about.

It felt like watching a nice rom-com that might get cancelled after a first season on Netflix, but at least you enjoyed the weird ride.

“How you feeling about the presentation next week?” You could see the moment in Harry’s eyes in which he went inside his own head. The little spark of joy looking at his colleagues and friends being nerd jocks, fading away. His head turned to the ceiling and he released a long sigh.

“I wanted to say I’m nervous, but it’s not only that.” Luna waited for him to find the right words as Fleur was just finishing her routine. Sad song resounding around them. “I feel guilty… that I should be worrying more about losing than I am right now.”

“Are you still a little nervous?” Luna asked without missing a beat.

“Yes. I think I am.”

“In my humble opinion of a non therapist. I think you’re just feeling the excitement of something you like but there’s no pressure on it. Which is a state where everyone wants to reach.”

“But I should be putting myself on a higher standard, don’t I? Aiming for more every day.”

The program at the rink finally ended and Luna could see at the corner of her eyes that Hermione and Ron were quietly arguing. By their body language, it was more heated than a passerby would expect just glancing at their faces. They only stopped talking for a brief moment when Delacour stopped by, said something and left to talk with Viktor.

Luna grabbed Harry’s left hand and held in between her own. This made him look at her again, breaking the thought storm in his head. “You come here everyday. You train. You teach classes. You train more and still stay to check on other skaters to improve yours.” She looked him in the eyes and with all the love she could muster at that moment she said.

“You’re right where you’re supposed to be. What did McGonagall tell you last week when you messaged me about the quad?” Harry laughed.

“Trust the process.”

“Which process Isabelle?” Vika almost shouted and held his tongue to avoid certain coaches to listen to this conversation. “You’re speaking words and the only thing I hear is Youall.”

“Youall?” Fleur asked while she stretched her arms. Her short program always makes her shoulder a little sore after it. Too tense.

“Gabby told me about it. When you lesbians move in right after the first date.” His thick accent always comes strong when he is being too emotional or intense. Fleur feels cocky that her life choices create such a reaction. Even if it’s disapproval.

“I think I know what you mean.” She is never telling him the proper word. “But we’re not moving in together. I’m just planning on telling her soon. She already knows I’m retiring. It can work Vika!” Fleur had maybe, organized the whole timeline of events on their way back from Grenoble. The weird dopamine of a great program mixed with the freedom of a decision. A serious and important decisions, but one nonetheless. Life was open in front of her, and she already set up a goal.

“Let’s do an imagination work here then.” He waved to Minerva and gave her a thumbs up to allow Neville and Ginny to go before him. “You do go, today even, to talk to Hermione. You say, I like you, would you go out with me? What do you think she is going to do?”

“Well, I don’t know the future…” He put his finger in front of her mouth like the Bulgarian drama King that he is.

“Hermione Granger, the jump coach that carriers a planner and also has a digital copy of it on her phone and tablet. What would she say?”

“Oh.” Fleur stopped her gay brain to think for the first time. She never thought of the coach skater relationship as a big issue, but mostly because she is the skater. Hermione wouldn’t think the same.

“We know she is fine with you being gay and almost cut the one who must not be name head off in France. But, do you know if she is gay? Did you know she and Ronald used to date? Does she want to be dating right now or is her career the focus?” Fleur clenched her lips and went to massage her shoulder again. The tension did not come from the program this time.

“She showed some _physical inclination_ when I was around.” She said in a very low tone, a little ashamed that she always took the fact that Hermione would be there to receive her feelings for granted. “My gaydar is usually right, but you do have a point.”

“Please, say that again. It’s not always that I can hear it.” Krum mocked.

“You’re right Vika. I was getting ahead of myself.” She looked to the other side of the rink, where Hermione looked cozy in conversation with Ron. Her stomach clenched looking at it now, confidence gone. “But, what do I do with these feelings? Should I just let it go then?”

“Oh, my darling.” He put his hands on her shoulders and shook her vigorously. Trying to take the bad feelings with the force of his arms. When Fleur looked like she was properly disheveled and focused on killing him with whatever was in her disposition he kept going.

“Of course not. You conquer her.”

“I shouldn’t have told you. Just forget it.” Ron would not let this go. Hermione was already regretting this happy disposition of him if it meant being nagged about her apparent obvious crush.

“You tell me that she is retiring. Then you’re not her coach anymore. What is the issue?”

“She’s leaving after the season is over. Who stays in Hogsmeade?”

“Us. And, that seems like a reasonable reason to stay around for a while. Krum is also staying, there is that.”

Hermione was really trying not to grunt too loud, but that was her only answer to this. A natural, annoyed grunt towards this conversation. She didn’t have time to explain her very good and plausible reasons related to her coach-skater ethics, that might not exist anymore because one of them is not a skater anymore, which makes the coach role irrelevant. And, she’s getting herself be taken by Ron’s words.

“I need to focus on my career Ron.”

“Bullshit. And you know it.” She wasn’t going to win this discussion, was she?

“Okay, what should I do then?”

Neville asked Ginny and McGonagall. They were having trouble with a holding segment in which Ginny was getting wobbly and being put down on the ice sooner than the proper time of the movement.

Minerva was glad that the girl took the initiative to explain where her partner was holding her wrong, because she was about to snap at everyone in her rink right now. She couldn’t hear exactly what everyone was saying, but there was no way the four other occupants of this piece of ice were doing something close to training.

She didn’t mind if they didn’t follow the schedule, they are adults after all and she gets paid every month if they train or not. The white noise of the shout whispers that were driving her insane. Acoustics in an ice rink are not the best, which says a lot about the volume of the conversations. There was a migraine starting to take pulsating form in the back of her head.

“I need a break.”

Hermione finally removed herself from the general radius of Ron’s voice. Leaving the rink and sitting on the closest bleacher still with her skates on. She massaged her forehead and looked down at the blades with ice on its corners.

“Are you okay?” Fleur’s voice came from the side of the music player. She chose a song and pressed play. Krum’s short program choice had started.

“Just tired. Season trying to catch up to me.” She couldn’t be accused of lying.

“You know. We could go do something to relax. You have the day off tomorrow with us, right?” Fleur smiled at her and Granger’s first reaction was to lie.

“I promised I’d help…” She looked around and saw Luna’s blonde hair on the other side - weirdly starring at her. “Luna! I’d promise Luna I’d help with some of her lab animals.”

“It’s okay. I can go pick you up after. No worries. I do owe you one for protecting my honor in Grenoble.”

“Okay everyone!” McGonagall’s voice reverberated around them as if she had a megaphone. That woman had too many random skills. “We’re done for today. I’ll see you all on Monday.”

Everyone started leaving the rink after the head coach, who walked into her office with her skates on and closed the door behind her with a very polite bang.

“And I’ll see you tomorrow.” Fleur smirked at Granger like a child that managed to trick you into buying them an expensive Christmas present, and then she did the unthinkable. The horror, the emotional despair of Hermione’s personal rules. Fleur gave her a kiss on the cheek in front of everyone.

McGonagall was thankfully, only listening to her electric kettle bubbling water for her tea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! How is everyone doing? Are you keeping safe? Wearing your mask? Getting some sun (if you're in the winter part of the world)
> 
> I'm doing all of the above plus staying lonely in my household, which with the second wave and seasonal depression is taking a tool on my mental health. I will keep writing this little fic, but I might get slower to update. 
> 
> Either way, I hope this brings you some serotonin and let me know your feelings and thoughts about it :)
> 
> ps: funny fact, if the skating calendar had not be cancelled this year, the shenanigans of this chapter would have taken place last weekend.


	18. Reptiles are Sensitive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *walks in with a bottle of vitamin D and a sun lamp*  
> I'm back bitches.  
> No beta, no ownership, only drama to give.

Luna is not one of those people that wants to be alone when she’s in the lab. She is also someone that considers the animals she’s studying company, so she’s never really alone. But when a _homo sapiens sapiens_ decides to join her, it’s under one condition:

“Don’t bring strong emotions in here. It bothers the animals.”

To her surprise the trespasser of this rule is Hermione Granger. Showing up unannounced at the lab, saying she wanted to help, missed school, something weird like that. Lovegood’s first instinct was to call Harry and tell ‘Mione got lost please come pick her up’, but if she really is, maybe that is the place Granger was supposed to be. Nevertheless, the girl was there that morning, eager to follow whatever instruction Luna could think of. She could abuse this situation, but Robert – the slow worm she was handling - would not appreciate an exacerbation of _bad vibes_ and there was no way she could bring the grass snake out with the coach there.

Granger was an accident waiting to happen.

“Is there anything I can do to help? You can tell me what to write down, something.” Hermione’s knees bounced in a rhythmic pattern, up, down, up, down, up, down. “I need something to do.”

Luna finished putting the new plant for the reptile aquarium and opened her backpack, dropping a massive Intro to BioChem book onto the coach’s lap. Hermione looked at her friend, then back at the book and with a resigned sigh started reading it. After a few minutes she even had a notebook out and was taking notes. Maybe Luna could go take care of the grass snake without incidents.

However, she could feel Robert staring at their company through the glass. The long body hidden underneath new leaves but head out, curious. Hermione has a troubling but exciting aura around her, constantly shapeshifting, organized and turbulent at the same time. If she wanted to be funny, a Newtonian liquid would fit well as a pun. Soft left on its own, stiff under pressure.

Robert looked at Luna and back at Hermione. The researcher understood the signal.

“Something caught your eye in the wonderful world of BioChem?” Hermione looked at her with a side eye and finished scribbling another note related to the chapter and closed the book.

“Reading it I realized I’ve been lacking on my research about quad jumping development for girls. Got some good notes and ideas as I read the simple stuff. Excited to start working on it again.” If excited meant wanting to hit her head on a metal surface repeatedly, then Hermione nailed the tone of voice.

“But it’s been a good couple of months for you, hasn’t it? Pretty sure Ginny has been sharing some articles mentioning the young, bright and diverse new face of figure skating, putting the UK on the map!” Luna made a show of hands for the last part, trying to make a joke out of the usual headlines that follow the coach since this all started. Harry and Ginny kept them saved on a Google Docs in order to print them all like a bad collage.

“Maybe? I only see some of the stuff they send on the group chat. As we all remember from Uni days, I don’t deal well with bad press.”

“They were lying about the Student Union Hermione. That wasn’t bad press.”

“I still got the Senior Editor fired.”

“Wait, that was you?” Luna remembers the “scandal.” Someone in the Dean’s office found out about someone using the newspapers office as a drug selling point by a façade of ‘student interview appointment’. It wasn’t that smart but somehow the whole staff got incriminated on it and most of them had to resign or go under a strict probation period.

“I’m not a snitch but I warned Pansy to stop lying about the Union just because her candidate didn’t win.” A small smirk tried growing on Hermione’s face, only to be killed quickly by a scorn. “But a lot of people got caught in the crossfire.”

“People make mistakes.” Luna gave her companion a tap on the knee, but Granger moved herself away. Robert shuffled inside his aquarium and was no longer in view.

“Some can afford mistakes, others can’t.” Lovegood was going to regret her decision later and she blames her slow worm for making her start this conversation to begin with.

“Does one of those mistakes speaks French and has a great ass?”

“Every skater has a great ass.” Hermione was avoiding eye contact but she didn’t say no. “It’s no use talking about it. I think I heard a pep talk from everyone but Minerva and I’m just waiting for her to fire me.”

“Did anything happen between you two?” Hermione’s right hand held the counter to stabilize whatever gay panic she was having, but she managed to speak a very low volume ‘no’. “So, there’s nothing to worry about. You can’t fire someone for having a crush.”

The coach pulled air into her lungs as if she was ready to argue but then stopped mid action, releasing a long sigh. “You’re right. I just…” She looked heartbroken mixed with anger. This wasn’t a crush, not even a deep infatuation. Hermione _really_ liked Fleur, maybe closer to the big L than what Luna and the rest of the Gryffindor team thought.

“What would you do if she liked you back?”

“I’m her coach, it’s not right.”

“She’s only your athlete until next month.” Hermione rolled her eyes. She seemed to have had that argument with herself more than once.

“Fleur is not staying here.”

“Did you ask her?”

“Ask her what?”

“If she’s staying here.” Of course, Hermione Granger know-it-all wouldn’t have asked. Because she _knows_.

“It’s Hogsmeade Luna. Why would she stay here?” Mione was playing with a tweezer she found and looked like she wanted to throw it at something. Hopefully, not at someone. It seemed Luna had to bring out the ‘big guns’, as her supervisor usually says. Metaphor and comparison.

“You and Harry are very similar. Did you know that?” The change of subject worked and the tweezer was left behind, together with the murderous face. Once again, she had the class attention.

“What do you mean?”

“Both assume things based on experience. Which is a great skill. Usually get it right, but because the range of right assumptions is too big.” Hermione stared at her, trying to figure out if that was an insult or a fair assessment of something she couldn’t correctly grasp yet. “It’s easy to be right when you’re guessing a number between 0 and 100 if you guess by tens. It could be 24, but 20 to 30 is not the same thing.”

“I think I know what you mean, but that was such an extraneous explanation.”

“Your brain needs a lot of pieces to focus on. So, I threw as many as I could on the fly to make you think without diverging them to your emotions. It was a valiant try.” Granger looked at her with a surprised expression. Being outplayed by anyone must feel alien to her.

“It’s just hard to believe it could end up well. Every variable is working against me.” Luna wanted to ask what were those variables but someone knocked on the lab door interrupting their conversation. Robert once again moved inside the aquarium. He needs a break from all of this.

Luna gave Hermione an apologizing look and went to open the door only to see the object of their conversation standing outside. Could it count as a Bloody Mary technique of calling if the other person is also blonde? Does it mean her lab is also a washroom? It definitely was a public one taking the traffic into account.

“Fleur!” Lovegood said it loud enough for Hermione to listen and prepare herself before facing the skater. “I would say it’s a surprise, but today that’s just the normal.” The woman looked relieved. By her cheek colour she has been walking outside in the cold for a while.

“Hi Luna. Sorry to interrupt your work, I’m supposed to meet with Hermione but she hasn’t been answering her phone. I asked Harry and Ginny where your lab was but I got lost in between the buildings and I’ve knocked on a _lot_ of wrong doors. Can I come in?” Fleur blurted in a tired voice. If she was going through all this work to only find Hermione, Luna hopped that the coach would see that at least one variable is working in her favour.

“Of course! The more the merrier.” She moved to let Fleur in and was faced with Hermione focused on filling a sheet while looking straight into her slow worm’s eyes. Apparently, her lab was the place all these people needed to be. Who is she to go against the universe? “And I’m sorry, I’ve been keeping Hermione busy with reptile duty, that’s why she didn’t answer.”

“Oh, hi Fleur. How nice to see you today.” Hermione was really good in whatever she decided to put her mind to it, but she never went to drama class. Lovegood, Delacour and Robert looked at each other with confused expressions.

“I said yesterday I wanted to take you out as a thank you. It’s our off day. I was thinking that we could grab some lunch and maybe drive to the ocean? It’s cold but the Sun’s out. Who knows when we’ll see it again?” Fleur laughed and Luna agreed with her enthusiastically, expecting Hermione to take the chance for the date and go.

What they both got in return was a blue screen Granger, including the silly smile that comes in the new Windows 10. She said nothing, did nothing, and maybe she hasn’t blinked yet. As a sign that God exists and sometimes have mercy on the poor souls wandering the Earth, Hermione’s phone started vibrating inside her pocket. It worked as a reboot to her systems as she excused herself and left the lab as fast as possible. When the heavy door closed and no outside noise could be heard, Fleur groaned in frustration.

“I promise you there is a limit to how stubborn she can be.” Luna stated while she walked towards Robert. “Don’t lose hope.”

“It’s hard when she starts avoiding me when I make a clear show of wanting to go out with her.” Lovegood laughed a good laugh. It was so nice that even the scared slow worm put their head out of its protective leaf to take a look. “What’s so funny about that?” The skater asked, toying with her fingers. Luna noticed that the once very polished nails were a little bitten on the sides.

“Because that’s the issue isn’t it? Acting on it. Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“What is the difference between Fleur and the Fleur Figure Skater? What is the line?”

“That’s a really good question.” Fleur gave Luna a nod as she opened her jacket in the warm lab. “The Figure Skater is a highly curated version of the original. To maintain privacy and to get paid. Is this a question related to Hermione?”

“It is and it isn’t. I’m curious on how you would balance that. If it became something.” The skater smiled to a point in the distance before answering her. Lost in a nice daydreaming sequence.

“When I started my career, it was easy to accept the rules of the game because I really wanted it. You make sacrifices in order to be happy, and I was for a long time. However, this last year my will to abide by the rules of the game changed, because what makes me happy changed. I love skating, but there are more negatives than positives now. I want to find new things. Long story short, no I wouldn’t hide Hermione. My choice of retiring is also thinking about it.”

“That’s a huge sacrifice.”

“I’m not retiring for her. She’s just a part of it. Vika already drilled me on it, believe me. I just feel that this could be something, and I don’t want to regret not trying. I really do love this stubborn girl.”

This is such a different conversation than the one Luna was having a few minutes ago. There was uncertainty in the air but it was tender. Delacour wasn’t jumping this without knowing the depths of the lake, there was the thrill of the jump, but she has walked around the border, watching the waves and the trees surrounding it. Noticed the dents where new water comes in and leaves. She respects the place she is diving in.

As a wave crashing onto the shore, Hermione comes back into the lab. Flushed, nervous, but beaming. Why does it feel that the good energy was again sucked onto a black hole then? Robert hid once more inside the aquarium and Luna decided that she needed to move him before something bad happens. The slow worm is going to hate being carried but it’s better than waiting to see what weird Fae has given Hermione this curse.

“It’s not out yet, but Kihira is withdrawing from NHK.” The coach said in a loud whispery voice. The researcher had no idea what that meant, but Delacour’s aura changed drastically from the tender movement of before. Luna grabbed Robert’s aquarium quietly to relieve them from this situation when the skater broke the silence.

“I’m retiring Hermione. I don’t want it.”

“You still have a long career Fleur. There’s so much you can do.”

Lovegood managed to hide herself in the back room before the whole room felt like a war zone. She was making herself busy in order to not go back in there, but she could still hear the conversation.

“Tell them I’m not competing.” Robert moved around his leaves. “You already told ISU yes, didn’t you?”

Steps, the door unlocking and Fleur’s defeated voice.

“We’ll talk later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> I regret nothing.
> 
> Thank you for sticking around and reading! I appreciate all of you going on this wild ride with me.


End file.
